WILD PALMS announce March UK tour and new album ‘Until Spring’
aaamusic | On 25, Jan 2011
Grandiose and melancholic an expansive, romantic new sound for Wild Palms that hints at the sonic ambition of Wild Beasts NME
Virtually a phone call from Jesus himself Artrocker
Wild Palms release their long awaited debut Until Spring on 7th March. Produced by Gareth Jones (Grizzly Bear/ Depeche Mode/ These New Puritans).
Comprised of charismatically roguish front man and one time teenage garage MC, Lou Hill, Chatham resident and Billy Childish worshipping guitarist, Darrel Hawkins, demon drummer James Parish and suitably elegant bass player Gareth Jones, the quartet now quintet – coalesced out of a group of like-minded music fans in Southgate, North London around 2007. First appearing as Ex-Lion Tamers and feeding on a diet of Beefheart, The Fall, Can, The Bunnymen and Wire they emerged in April 2008 as a ferocious, four-headed beast melding deconstructed guitar lines and Parishs thundering rhythms to Hills staccato wordplay. I wanted to get the best people I could, remembers Hill. All this new stuff was coming out and we never knew what to grip onto, we were just playing, then all of a sudden everything just started working. Something that was clearly ours started coming and it felt like we had ownership over it.
Key in the consideration of Wild Palms is their dramatic evolution and restless desire, collectively, to keep pushing forward. As the band have moved away from their initial inspirations they have sublimated the more obtuse angles of their nature within a warmer, more expansive soundscape. While they can still crackle with an underlying menace, Until Spring finds something more amorphous about them, serene, sublime even! In the space of a year the band have released sharp-shock debut Over Time, moving through the melancholic washes of the transitionary Deep Dive (their first OLI single) before arriving at this autumns most fully realised sound in the form of the To The Lighthouse/ Draw In Light 10, a galvinising mix of stoicism and bliss.
From widescreen opener Draw In Light and Pale Fires ghostly coda to the propulsive roar of Carnations and the gentle strings of LHC, Until Spring is by turns heart stopping, heart broken, unsettling and uplifting. We never really talked about it, notes Hawkins, but for me, I wanted to make something beautiful that would surpass everything around me, that was bigger than myself.
Quite literally using the studio to supplement the shuddering dynamics of their live performance (the band utilised the Biffa bins out back for percussion and even miced up the water tank), Wild Palms distilled all the ideas, sidesteps and progressions of the last two years into one glorious suite of songs.
Still finding it impossible to rest on their laurels, even for a second, the group have already moved on, recruited a new member, guitarist/ multi-instrumentalist Bobby Krilic and are making plans for a follow up, with recent live shows peppered with a handful of newly penned tracks.
I listened to the album for the first time the other day and I really enjoyed it, says Hill in a rare moment of retrospection. You know what? We should give ourselves a fucking pat on the back for that, its a well good effort.
Live dates March 2011:
Wed 2nd York Fibbers
Thu 3rd London Rough Trade East
Fri 4th Glasgow King Tuts
Sat 5th Manchester Fac251
Mon 7th Liverpool Static Gallery
Tue 8th Bristol The Cooler
Wed 9th Birmingham Hare & Hounds
Thu 10th London Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
Fri 11th Brighton Green Door Store
http://wearewildpalms.com
