LICE: In Session

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Music

An exclusive live in session from experimentalists LICE as they embark on a UK tour.

LICE are a four piece band from Bristol – a wild assortment of friends who have been kicking about for years. However, this year things got serious with the release of an album on the hotly followed record label AD93. Titled “Third Time At The Beach” the album is split across three parts as the group attempt to navigate life in the present through a collage of sounds and realms.

As a group their influences are far reaching and as such the music can be hard to pin down or place. There’s elements of minimalism, rock, punk, new wave, techno and beyond all dotted throughout. To most the collusion of sounds and styles would be difficult to navigate yet somehow everything comes together in a slightly mad, eccentric kind of way to wondrous effect.

The group describe the record as follows:

“Third Time At The Beach’s concept is expressed through three movements. The first (‘Unscrewed’, ‘White Tubes’, ‘Red Fibres’) presents the child being introduced to the world, hammered into shape through prevailing culture, and realising they have reached adulthood with a blinkered understanding of the world. The second (‘To The Basket’, ‘Wrapped In A Sheet’, ‘Scenes From The Desert’, ‘Mown In Circles’) is a disorientating, alien sequence: re-evaluating fundamental concepts including money, time, nationhood and language. In the third (‘Fatigued, Confused’, ‘Third Time At The Beach’, ‘The Dance’), the individual embraces these new ideas – granting them a changed understanding of the world, and more agency in the path they take through it.”

When it comes to playing live the group are well versed. However, their upcoming tour is their biggest and most prolific yet with upcoming appearances in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and beyond.

This exclusive live session was recorded recently, giving listeners and would be dancers come moshers the chance to see what LICE are all about. They’re pretty damn good if you ask us…

So first of all, describe how it feels to be heading off on tour?

It’s one of the greatest pleasures of being in LICE. The music we make is so odd that it becomes easy to forget other people might like it. When we go on the road and meet people that get what we’re trying to do, it’s always a wonderful surprise, and we’ve made a lot of good friends at our shows we’re looking forward to seeing. The local supports all sound excellent too, so looking forward to seeing them.

The tour comes off the back of your album, have you been surprised by the feedback the record has received?

The response has been fantastic. Again, we don’t plan for the stuff we make to be appreciated, so hearing Mary Anne Hobbs, Huw Stephens and Emily Pilbeam play it in the middle of the day on 6Music, seeing people talking about it online and reading some of these wonderful reviews has been very special.

It was signed by AD93, how did that come about?

Apparently Nic Tasker (founder) had been following us with interest for a while, while we were doing everything ourselves around WASTELAND, apparently by way of recommendation from designer Chris Wright (Turbo Island). Anyone reading this who’s an artist doing things off their own back please take heart in that – you never know who is watching.

What was the process behind recording the record and where did the inspiration come from for the record?

Around the time we finished WASTELAND, Silas started getting the rest of us more interested in philosophy. We wanted to expand the scope of WASTELAND, which asked questions about how we saw ourselves in the music world, to explore how we saw ourselves in the wider world. So the album digs into all that stuff – science, history and how we explain it all to each other. We recorded gradually in different places and pockets of time, and pulled it all together in the basement studio under the Louisiana in Bristol, so really it’s a collage sort of thing – there’s scraps of audio from bedrooms, the road, all the places we’ve been the past couple years.

Of which track are you most proud or do you feel truly represents LICE as a project?

The title track Third Time At The Beach. I think if you listen to that song, you’ll hear all the things LICE has been so far.

How do you approach live performance?

Send it BB!!!

Catch them HERE>>>>>>

Friday 18 October – Bristol, Strange Brew
Monday 21 October – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds 2
Tuesday 22 October – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
Wednesday 23 October – Manchester, The Castle
Thursday 24 October – London, Corsica Studios
Monday 28 October – Germany, Hamburg, Molotow (supporting Deadletter)
Tuesday 29 October – Germany, Cologne, Gebaude 9 (supporting Deadletter)
Wednesday 30 October – Belgium, Antwerp, Trix (supporting Deadletter)
Thursday 31 October – France, Massy, Espace Paul B (supporting Deadletter)
Saturday 2 November – Netherlands, Nijmegen, Doomroosje (supporting Deadletter)
Sunday 3 November – Netherlands, Rotterdam, Rotown (supporting Deadletter)
Monday 4 November – Netherlands, Amsterdam, Paradiso Tolhuistuin (supporting Deadletter)
Saturday 9 November – Brighton, Mutations Festival
Saturday 7 December – Netherlands, Eindhoven, The Jack
Sunday 8 December – Belgium, Liege, KulturA
Tuesday 10 December – France, Angers, Jokers
Wednesday 11 December – France, Paris, Supersonic
Thursday 12 December – France, Lyon, Sonic
Friday 13 December – France, Lille, L’Aeronef (supporting SPRINTS)