British synth band and self-styled indie-pop chameleons Spray have announced their forthcoming single ‘Anthologised by Cherry Red’, which is slated for release on May 11.
Founded in 2001, Spray is comprised of Ricardo Autobahn (synthesizers) and Jenny McLaren (vocals, guitars), both formerly of the Cuban Boys, who took their chaotic technopunk to number 1 on the Festive 50 (twice), recorded one of the best Peel Sessions ever and went head-to-head with Sir Cliff Richard in a Christmas Chart Battle (but ultimately lost). Their hit single ‘Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia’ (a.k.a. ‘The Hamster Dance Song’) sold a million copies, reached number 4 in the UK single charts, landed them on Top of the Pops and, in the words of John Peel, was “the most requested song I’ve had since ‘God Save The Queen’.
In a mathematically constructed list presented by RockListMusic.co.uk, the Cuban Boys registered as the 30th most popular band in the history of the John Peel Show, ranking ahead of the Inspiral Carpets (31), The Cure (34), Nirvana and The Stone Roses (=tied at 35). BBC producer Mike Engles selected the Cuban Boys’ first Peel Session as one of his top 10 all-time favorites, alongside Nirvana, The Damned and Ivor Cutler.
‘Anthologised by Cherry Red’ came about after a chat Ricardo Autobahn had with a fellow musician. When asked what he was currently up to, he uttered the beautiful phrase “oh, I’m at that stage in my career where I’m being anthologized by Cherry Red”. A lot of Spray’s inspiration and ideas come from everyday comments and this went straight to the band notebook.
“The song is not a critique of Cherry Red as we’re actually big fans of the label. It’s more a straightforward story song about a fading rock band finding success in their twilight years,” says Jenny McLaren. “It’s also an observation about the state of the music industry. If the business is based on catalog reissues, where are the catalog reissues of the future going to come from?”
Spray’s music is influenced by Sparks, The Buggles, DEVO, Pet Shop Boys, the KLF, Chvrches, and The Big Moon.
“This is spiky, new-wave electronic pop with a sense of humor. But we take our sense of humor very seriously. We aim for big choruses and funny lyrics, disco beats, and deafening synths,” says Ricardo Autobahn. “We try and write songs about things that aren’t normally written about in pop. There are enough songs now about love and cars, we try and go beyond that”.
Following the demise of the Cuban Boys, Autobahn and McLaren formed Spray, turning their attention toward synthpop and releasing their debut album ‘Living In Neon’ in 2002 on U.S. indie label Ninthwave Media. This was followed by ‘Children Of A Laser God’ in 2006, which included their smash cover of Lisa Lougheed’s ‘Run With Us’ (also ‘The Raccoons’ theme song).
Spray was the secret weapon behind the UK’s 2006 Final at Eurovision for Daz Sampson ‘Teenage Life’, having written and produced it, as well as singing the treated vocals for that track. Ricardo Autobahn and Daz Sampson would also collaborate on a dance version of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ under the name Rikki and Daz, recording it with the legendary Glen Campbell himself and filming its expensive video in the Arizona desert. This track went top 10.
Spray also recorded a novelty track as the Barndance Boys called ‘Yippie I Oh’, which became a top 30 hit. Under the moniker, The Attery Squash, Ricardo’s track ‘DEVO Was Right About Everything’ was remixed by Devo themselves. More recently, Spray recorded music with anarchic BBC star Hacker T. Dog.
Ricardo Autobahn writes music for TV and radio, which can be heard from BBC4 to ITV2 and from Australia to the USA. He also plays keyboards with Welsh punk-pop legends Helen Love, also known for their collaboration with Joey Ramone.
Throughout all of this, the duo has continued to record their verbose off-kilter indie-disco synthpop. Later on this year, Spray will release their fifth studio album, whilst undertaking their first live shows. ‘Anthologised By Cherry Red’ is the first material to be released, reflecting the band’s archetypal sound – a celebration-of-all-things-pop tinged with cynicism, despair, and the band’s ironic humor.
Spray ‘Anthologised by Cherry Red’ will be released on May 11 across all the standard online music stores and streaming platforms.
LINKS:
http://www.facebook.com/spraynet
http://spray.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/spraypopmusic
http://www.instagram.com/spraypopmusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/spraynetdotcodotuk
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/spray/5903199
http://open.spotify.com/artist/0lF1G9Lj5OsNKzBXmZWdcd?si=6XETlVr1RIenyJ0aYOvUTw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_(band)
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Testament – Live @ Hellfest Festival 2019
Testament is an emblematic group of thrash metal and the movement of the Bay Area in particular.
About Hellfest
Founded in 2006 on the ashes of FURYFEST, the HELLFEST festival was conceived and imagined by Benjamin Barbaud (founder) and Yoann Le Neve (Co-Founder).Established for 13 years in the small town of Clisson (44 – Nantes), the HELLFEST has quickly established itself as one of the leaders of European festivals that offer extreme music.
Each year, more than 160 bands come to perform on the six scenes of the HELLFEST, each representing a current of extreme music: MAIN STAGE 1 & MAIN STAGE 2 (hard rock / thrash) – TEMPLE STAGE (doom / pagan metal / black metal) – ALTAR STAGE (death metal / grind) – VALLEY STAGE (sludge / stoner) – WARZONE STAGE (punk / HxC).
During this decade, big names in Metal have been programmed: RAMMSTEIN, IRON MAIDEN, AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, BLACK SABBATH, SLAYER, MOTORHEAD, MOTLEY CRUE, MANOWAR, SCORPIONS, KISS, ALICE COOPER, ZZ TOP, MARYLIN MANSON, DEEP PURPLE, MEGADETH, KORN, SLIPKNOT, GUNS’N’ROSES, LYNYRD SKYNYRD, JUDAS PRIEST, DEFTONES, TWISTED SISTER, EUROPE, EMPEROR, TURBONEGRO, NOFX, BODY COUNT, STATUS QUO etc …
Mixing the giants of the genre, the rising formations or nuggets extracted from the underground milieu, the HELLFEST has won the trust of its public by offering each year an original and eclectic poster in the world of extreme music!
Welcoming more than 150,000 festival-goers over 3 days, the HELLFEST has distinguished itself by offering new installations year after year to guarantee the comfort of its fans, but also by offering an original immersion in an atypical setting. (Sculptures, ornaments, dressings, skate park, Ferris wheel ….) The scenography is worked in the smallest detail and has never been equaled: titanic light show, pyrotechnics, show and performances, set in daytime and night atmosphere, fire fireworks. The festival has surrounded itself over the years with artists and visual artists who participated in the creation of his own universe.
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South Central Positronic – Temponauta
From the creator of Kish Kollectiv comes “Temponauta” from South Central Positronics! “Temponauta” from South Central Positronics is a varied collection of (mostly) instrumental pieces very loosely inspired by the Italian New Age community, the Damanhur Federation, which is located in the Alpine foothills near Turin.
In the late 1990s, they revealed to the world that they had mastered the theory and practice of time travel (among other esoteric pursuits, some of which are connected to the lost civilization Atlantis), which was covered in a 1998 issue of the “Fortean Times”, a UK publication that concerns itself with paranormal phenomena. “Temponauta” is an Italian word that roughly translates as “female time traveler” and each composition very obliquely suggests another phase, experience, or aspect of her journey, but the listener is of course free to interpret the pieces in any way they wish.
From the creator of South Central Positronics “, They did later row back on a lot of these assertions and repositioned themselves as a more conventional spiritual commune and eco-village from the mid-2000s, but I never lost my fascination with their earlier claims of “esoteric physics” and “selfic science”.
Born of Italo-Celtic stock into a slowly rusting northern England in the throes of Thatcher-era de-industrialization, the young Michele Sarto (“Mike” to those closest to him; other people just can’t pronounce the name properly) was bitten by the horror bug early. After having been “encouraged” to sit through an uncut version of Lucio Fulci’s surreal schlock masterpiece “City of the Living Dead” at the age of 6 by mischievous elder cousins, a lifelong fascination with the darker side of fiction was born. Equally haunted and excited by aftermath images of reanimated corpses, horrific “skull-crush” kills and a young woman literally vomiting out her innards, another element of that particular production was to make an indelible impression on the young Sarto; the maestro Fabio Frizzi’s masterful synthesizer-driven score.
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Ernest Moon – Satdeenight Ready
Liverpool-based outfit Ernest Moon presents ‘Satdeenight Ready’ off their ‘Ba-jesus’ EP, which is finally being released on CD in early April. Recorded at Orphan Recording in Dublin with Peter Ashmore and Gavin Glass (Paul Brady, John Grant, Lisa Hannigan, Mundy), these four tracks are packed with loads of adrenaline-packed expression that is both critical and tongue-in-cheek.
‘Satdeenight Ready’ is about a fella going out at the weekend to get drunk and look for some romance. Though he gets reflective in the chorus where he laments humanity’s needlessly cruel and trashy aspects, albeit in a humorous rather than heavy way.
Ernest Moon is Steven Doran and Brian Murphy, two English no-marks brought together by a liking for eggs on toast. Their sound is somewhat punky and has been described as pushy pop. They say they are “filling the gap between pretentious lyrical art and bog standard pop music”.
“We were in a band before with our best mate and whatever blert we could get to drum. we released one LP, which bombed everywhere except New Zealand, where we were worshipped and certain underpopulated parts of Estonia there were some unsubstantial sales,” says Steven Doran.
“This is the first time our singularly poetic take on stuff has been released. And it is as polished, in terms of production, as we’ll ever get. One could say that the four songs on the Ba-jesus EP are inspired by the humor and language of working-class Liverpool, and the tendency to be both showy offy and earthy. The music reflects that with its up-frontedness,” says Brian Murphy.
“This EP was recorded in Dublin, which is why we used the utterance Ba-jesus, which derives from Ireland and is an expression of resignation and disbelief among other things”.
The Blockheads, Arab Strap and Talking Heads number among their influences, as do Loudon Wainwright, Joni Mitchell, and writers such as James Kelman, Paddy Kavanagh and Philip Larkin.
The ‘Ba-jesus’ EP is available digitally via iTunes and for streaming on Spotify. The CD is being offered exclusively via Bandcamp and comes in a breathtaking matt finish gatefold card case with bonza photographs by Steven Crabtree and Chris Dorley-Brown.
LINKS:
https://ernestmoon.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/ernestmoon-244815177
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4-lITLajtU_q4qHN-KEsg/videos
https://twitter.com/ErnestMoonMusic
https://www.facebook.com/steven.doran.545