Vincent Black Lightning - Lay Your Rug EP
Artist:
Vincent Black Lightning
Label: Eli Records
Release Date: 23/09/07
Rating:
'Lay Your Rug' is much more than a standard five-track EP: it is a manifesto of what Vincent Black Lightning and their label, the Burnley based Eli Records, believe independent music should be.
This debut EP, one of only 500 copies, comes in a handmade sky-blue, guillotined card sleeve with an entomological inspired stamped design, and text in the quintessential English, Johnston typeface – the one that is ubiquitous on London's transport network. With the care and attention that has been paid to the sleeve alone, you feel that this should be treasured even before you listen to its contents.
But this romanticism of quintessential English/Britishness is fully at work in the EP which, to quote VBL, runs on "old valve amps, guitars & drum kit [and] classic English offbeat songwriting".
'Lay Your Rug' has an underlying Kinks feel to it, which is further heightened by its mentioning of matrons, tractors and samples which could be mistaken for excerpts from examples of British New Wave cinema.
Yet this implicit Kinks feel is put through the so-called blender to produce something that sports traces of early Fall, with 'Good Job, Proper Job' bemoaning the need for gainful employment in favour of art and rock n' roll. It's a definite example of the era before indie music and the era of its infancy living together, to create something refreshing and original.
What is ostensibly British about this EP is the Rough Trade MK.1 feel to it, which it takes you right back to the early days of British independent music. The handmade cover; the strive for originality; the distribution through two records shops in Burnley and Manchester; and a record label that only believes in the five-track EP and sports bands that have recorded obscure Peel sessions, means that VBL bring the idolised past right back to the present.
Songwriter Stephen Hartley in 'Water in the Pond' says "We're English, doesn't it show?" Well, it certainly does, and it makes us feel rather patriotic – for once.
David Meller
Vincent Black Lightning MySpace
Label: Eli Records
Release Date: 23/09/07
Rating:
'Lay Your Rug' is much more than a standard five-track EP: it is a manifesto of what Vincent Black Lightning and their label, the Burnley based Eli Records, believe independent music should be.
This debut EP, one of only 500 copies, comes in a handmade sky-blue, guillotined card sleeve with an entomological inspired stamped design, and text in the quintessential English, Johnston typeface – the one that is ubiquitous on London's transport network. With the care and attention that has been paid to the sleeve alone, you feel that this should be treasured even before you listen to its contents.
But this romanticism of quintessential English/Britishness is fully at work in the EP which, to quote VBL, runs on "old valve amps, guitars & drum kit [and] classic English offbeat songwriting".
'Lay Your Rug' has an underlying Kinks feel to it, which is further heightened by its mentioning of matrons, tractors and samples which could be mistaken for excerpts from examples of British New Wave cinema.
Yet this implicit Kinks feel is put through the so-called blender to produce something that sports traces of early Fall, with 'Good Job, Proper Job' bemoaning the need for gainful employment in favour of art and rock n' roll. It's a definite example of the era before indie music and the era of its infancy living together, to create something refreshing and original.
What is ostensibly British about this EP is the Rough Trade MK.1 feel to it, which it takes you right back to the early days of British independent music. The handmade cover; the strive for originality; the distribution through two records shops in Burnley and Manchester; and a record label that only believes in the five-track EP and sports bands that have recorded obscure Peel sessions, means that VBL bring the idolised past right back to the present.
Songwriter Stephen Hartley in 'Water in the Pond' says "We're English, doesn't it show?" Well, it certainly does, and it makes us feel rather patriotic – for once.
David Meller
Vincent Black Lightning MySpace
Submit to:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comments
No comments yet
