| Restlesslist reviews |
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Time Out London Pleasingly stomping mash of samples, beats and horns that’s a bit Go! Team, a bit Lemon Jelly and a bit Ennio Morricone. Features members of ESP who also feature members of Brakes, who also feature here. Sorry, only a Venn diagram would explain that properly and I don’t even have one compass, let alone a pair. Butlin Breaks @ tatapoum.net (from google's translation) While Alex sings with Actress Hands, Tom White stashes himself behind the drums with his third group. The first song is a slaughter of communicative joy (?) whereas the b-side, The Cowboy Song (nothing to do with Brokeback Mountain) wants to be more menacing and melancholic. Excellent, quite simply. Not content with being involved in one bonkers indie pop group (aka Brakes) The Electric Soft Parade’s Thomas White crops up again here as one of two drummers in new Brighton outfit Restlesslist. The band are the warped brainchild of Benjamin Elliott (samplers/keys) and Matthew Twaites (guitar/samplers/keys) who are supplemented here by the aforementioned White, Henry Bell and Crispin Cairns. The band cite a diverse range of influences on their press release taking in everything from “really awful horror movie soundtracks” to Broken Social Scene, Sigur Ros and Gorillaz. Debut single “Butlin Breaks” more than delivers on these eclectic promises and is a rather odd instrumental take on Tex Mex its twangy guitars recalling a rather warped but inventive Ennio Morricone track. Nominal ‘B’ side “The Cowboy Song” meanwhile follows along similar lines conjuring up disturbing mental images that suggest it would serve as a fitting soundtrack to a David Lynch western that’s yet to have been made. If you like quirky, experimental music then Restlesslist are certainly worth investigating. For more information you can visit: restlesslist.co.uk There’s a tendency to assume that if a rock band has no singer, then they must be overly-introspective muso types with too many Mogwai records. This is certainly not true of Restlesslist, whose ‘Butlin Breaks’ is the nearest thing I’ve heard to a summertime pop record in 2006 so far. The track is awash with trumpets and cha-cha rhythms and ends up sounding like some sort of perverted game show theme tune. ‘The Cowboy Song’ is rather bleaker and starts of like a sparse Four Tet record before the keyboards take it in a rather more sinister direction and you start to suspect that they’re maybe not so friendly after all. Definitely one to keep an eye on. Loads of info on this release but so that you and I don’t die of rigid boredom - in a nutshell - Restlesslist are a quintet who feature in their ranks various members (though we won’t say who exactly) of the Brakes and the Electric Soft Parade (so that’ll be Thomas and Matthew then - damn wasn’t meant to say) It all started two years ago with loops and stuff, a pseudonym Mr Winchesters Cat and a compilation appearance alongside the likes of the great Jeffrey Lewis and the crafted though lunatic Thomas Truax. Friends then joined, sharing experiences, ideas, record collections and small funny fags. Restlesslist was born as they say and ‘Butlin Breaks’ is the first recorded fruits and indeed the first of two releases planned for the fledging Life is Easy label. Okay let’s get the grumbling out of the way first of all - admit it - a terrible name for a band - especially if you have - shall we say - spent the night face down in a rather potent punch bowl. That aside this really shapes up to be something of a classy debut. Those of you who are keen observers of that thing that sits in the corner of your living room we lovingly refer to as a goggle box may well have noted (perhaps with a certain amount of pleasure) the number of old ‘classic’ serials from the late 60’s / early 70’s being screened at present - Department S, Jason King, Strange Report, Man in the Suitcase et al. Why do I mention this you might ask, well simply because ‘Butlin Breaks’ harks back and gently nibbles at the same action / suspense sound design of the theme tunes that decorated these programmes as though the Shadows had met Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet and Man or…Astro Man to swap riff notes and got both Edwin Astley and John Williams to tweak and colour all the spaces to include the accompaniment of some suitably tear stained heart string shredding brass arrangements - all mean, moody and irresistibly cool as it slinks sleekly across the grooves. Flip over the disc and the very odd and frankly worrying ‘The Cowboy Song’ awaits. For some hitherto and incomprehensible reason it has me thinking fairgrounds, magic sherbet, creepy clowns, kaleidoscopic images - which between you and me I don’t mind admitting to not having slept since it arrived and that’s before we’ve gotten a chance to mention the purified psychedelic accents it hinges on - try thinking if at all possible of a wired variant of Black Heart Procession - goes without saying you need this. restlesslist.co.uk |