Prego
It Hugs Back, DiS DJs, Shady Bard, and Paul Marshall
About the venue
Barden's Boudoir
A lengthy yet intimate cavern underneath a disused Dalston furniture store.»
About the artists
Prego
An anteroom in a former East London canal-side chapel is Prego’s home, complete with ProTools, a grubby sofa and two soft-porn flatmates. In winter it’s freezing; in summer, unbearable. But, although in desperate need of ashtrays and a paint job, it’s their own.
From here the church newspaper receptionist, electrical engineer, budding illustrator, fine-artist turned studio boffin and film student make music things that have so far turned up on a top-selling compilation (Spring 2005’s The Suffolk Explosion) and their sold-out debut EP, ‘Primaries’.
They’re good records with even better press. Already earmarked and aired by Steve Lamacq, the Prego sound is one that fiddles with space and fills time with somersaults and trickery hitherto never put to tape.
Ah, what the hey with past-bedtime hype. Have a listen and make up your own mind…
"...Prego play song heavy post-rock. Think swirling behemoth dynamics, broken beauty melodies and a flagrant excess of guitarists. Favourable comparisons to Death Cab For Cutie, Grandaddy and Mogwai have already been forthcoming."
»
It Hugs Back
- Matthew - vocals, guitar
- Paul - bass
- Dimitri - drums
With barely a handful of gigs under their young belts, It Hugs Back have received praise from all corners, including NME ("Kent could soon produce it's very own Bright Eyes") as well as eccstatic support from Xfm for their demos.
Their youthfulness is showcased through the beautifully naive music they perform. Hushed vocal melodies and jangling, Wilco-esque guitars combine to astonishing effect. Debut single 'Lights In The Trees' is due for release this Autumn.
Shady Bard
Drawn from all over this green and pleasant land, Shady Bard settled in Birmingham amidst tall buildings and city woodlands. From here came scruffily atmospheric, string-laden alt.folk songs, bursting occasionally into catastrophic guitar scuzz.
They have released a sold-out EP on Static Caravan and played on BBC Radio 2, Radio 4 and 6music. The band played the Green Man Festival in August and current single 'Penguins came out in October.
Things people have said:
"Sublime in the way it literally destroys you this EP is quietly magnificent, sensitive, mellow, melodically perfecthurting and lost in a maddening world of quick firing three minute fumbles in the sack of pop"
Losing Today
"Unsurpassable beauty...Shady Bard simply radiate mellow warmth."
The Fly
"One of our Faces of 2006, ambition and beauty resonate from every note of an EP that's both beautifully tender while rocking like Lost's polar bears. Hard not to say how gorgeous this is without being pretentious."
Channel 4 Teletext - Planet Sound
Paul Marshall
Under his other musical guise, Paul Marshall is one half of the noise/disco two-piece Concentration Champ, but anybody expecting his solo project to be anything like the detuned racket of the Champ will be sorely disappointed, or perhaps even pleasantly surprised. Pauls solo work is acoustic based, with lush finger-picked melodies ghosting underneath fragile vocal lines that place him somewhere between Nick Drake, Iron and Wine and Red House Painters. Whilst primarily just Paul and his guitar, other instrumentation drifts in and out of the melancholy passages like silhouettes in fog, while flecks of rhythm are interspersed throughout to add to the lilt of the rolling arpeggios. Expect something quite, quite beautiful.
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
