8 Tracks: Of A Small World With Transfigure

We met Chris Owen (Burning Pyre) when we discovered that the beautiful ambient music we presumed was made in Russia, since it was released on the same russian label as the last track from Perfect Human, was actually made a couple of miles down the road in Sunderland, neighbour to our hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne. This led us to discover the next band..

New Horror are our favourite local band. Another project featuring Chris Owen (Burning Pyre) this time accompanied by frontman Lewis Thompson and guitar god Mark McGarry. The track is a fuzzy affair. Clocking in at 10 minutes, at no point does it bore. Reminiscent of the late 80s baggy bands, had they all had a fuzz pedal and a ridged drum machine instead of a stoned drummer.

Actually a cover of a Candlewick Green song from the 70s, Saint Etienne improve on the latter by transforming it in to a dance pop masterpiece complete with shuffling drum machines and Sarah Cracknell’s evocative vocal. Coincidentally, Bob Stanley of the group was the first person to buy the physical 7″ release of our track Fields. A proud moment.

Their last single from 1991. A great track that is probably their best and is a complete 7 minute dance floor smasher.
By total coincidence whilst trying to purchase a vintage 80s EMU Emax sampling keyboard on eBay it turned out that the one we were bidding on was the exact one used on this record. The seller was the producer, Ian Catt, who had also used it on the Saint Etienne track featured last. The keyboard was complete with a full set of floppy discs of samples from these records. Sadly it was not meant to be as the unit stopped powering up before we could get it shipped.

We heard this track from the 90s dance pop group Dubstar when a friend of ours compared our music to theirs. Turns out there are from our hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne. While searching for their albums and 12″singles we came across a still sealed t shirt from 1995 in the back room of Lewis’s father record shop. It was waiting for us.

A lovely piece by the legendary 90s German synth duo. When we played our first concert in Germany back in 2013 one half of them, Andreas Sippel, turned up to the show. A year and a bit later when we were in Germany again to visit friends and see US synth king Martial Canterel live (check out his remix of our track ‘Fields’) Andreas invited us and Sean (Martial Canterel) to his house. His basement was full of vintage synthesizers. It was then that we hatched the plan too support Martial Canterel the next day in Bochum. Andreas would lend us the gear to play. But which synths from the basement would we choose? ‘Oh No!’ He said. ‘These are my broken ones, the rest are in my studio.’ So the following day we travelled to his studio which was situated in the basement of what seemed to be some sort of sports school. ‘I have the keys to the swimming pool’ he remarked. Inside the basement was the most impressive collection of vintage electronic instruments we have ever seen. We picked a couple of synths and played the show that night. Thanks Andreas!’

Through discovering this Russian band, bonds were made hundreds of miles from the source of the music. After purchasing their first tape a fluke facebook search of the label Perfect Aesthetics, which released this gem, led us to discover the next artist featured…

Our favourite contemporary act. We put them on in Newcastle a few months back at a 80 capacity venue and they pretty much packed it out. People travelled from all over the North East. The venue was upstairs and the ceiling to the bar downstairs nearly caved in from all the people going crazy to their show. A few days back we travelled to their hometown of Copenhagen in Denmark to see them play at the prestigious DR Koncerthuset in front of 1500+ people. It was streamed on danish national television and radio. They are destined to be huge. Lovely boys too.