aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

“Radial Images” is the debut album of Love Among The Mannequins, a four-piece band that used to be a three-piece band called Amateurs. They formed in Brighton UK in late 2009 and comprise Tobias Hayes (Meet Me In St. Louis, Shoes And Socks Off, Shield Your Eyes); Jonathan Baker (O You Broken Eyes); and Alexander Ross Petersen (Elle Milano, O You Broken Eyes) and Steven Andrew Stride (Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea)

Initially there was no manifesto for a “sound”, other than it would probably involve a lot of distortion pedals and, inevitably, plunder a leaf or two from Madonna-era Trail of Dead. Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov – the first song written, the opening track on “Radical Images” – set the precedent sonically and lyrically: wearied of the introspection of former projects, it was decided that inspiration could be found in the lives (and deaths) of esoteric and enigmatic historical figures, whether hero or villain, madman or guru, real, fiction, distortion, or a refraction of the truth via the surreal eye-lens of a disembodied and unreliable narrator.

The logic ran thus: if you’re going to have the bare-faced audacity to start yet ANOTHER band with drums and electric guitars, you’d at least better make sure you’re doing something interesting and they have indeed done that. This record boasts tales of geneticists, dystophia and general ruination mixed up with splashes of Pavement, Autolux and and Drive Like Jehu

A “radial image” is – Fyodorov theorised – an imprint of a person’s essence and memories stamped immutably into the ether, awaiting the exact recombination of the atoms of their body and the promise of resurrection – followed by a future of deathless, warless, and diseaseless peace amongst a transcended human race.

Love Amongst The Mannequins are set to tour the UK in November with Tangled Hair:

Friday 18th november 2011 – Sir Joeseph Whitworth – Manchester

Saturday 19th november 2011 – Dirty Otter Presents! @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds

Sunday 20th november 2011 – Redhouse – Sheffield

Monday 21st november 2011 – Swindon – venue TBC

Tuesday 22nd november 2011 – Pink Mist Presents @ The Old Blue Last, London

Wednesday 23rd november 2011 – Louisiana – Bristol

Thursday 24th november 2011 – Caseys, Canterbury

Friday 25th november 2011 – The Links, Fleet

Saturday 26th november 2011 – The Fighting Cocks,

Sunday 27th november 2011 – The Albert – Brighton