Friday, June 3, 2011

First sight: Spector

A stylish London five-piece led by a rakish, Bowie/Jarvis-type pop conceptualist

Who are they?

A stylish London five-piece, named after the legendary producer, whose excitable publicity material describes their music as "particularly English powerpop, somewhere between Roxy Music and the Strokes, the Killers and Kanye West, Pulp, R&B and Frank Sinatra". It's surprising they haven't got Mongolian nose-flute music and the voice of God in there, too. Their debut single, Never Fade Away, starts with the chorus and somehow gets bigger.

Not your fey, cardigan-wearing shrinking violets, then?

Not exactly. Frontman Fred Macpherson has declared: "I want our greatest hits album to be a double disc." Still only 23, he was in "legendarily rowdy upstarts" Les Incompetents and "legendarily doomy experimentalists" Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. In plain English, this means he was in a couple of trendy bands that didn't make much impact outside London's more fashionable districts.

So what changed?

He licked his wounds, started writing songs on a "crappy" Casio keyboard, conceived a big name for a big, hooky, passionate sound, and added a band to achieve it. Macpherson is a rakish, Bowie/Jarvis-type pop conceptualist, and whether he achieves his ambitions or not, pop with him around is unlikely to be dull.

Where can I hear them?

Never Fade Away is released on 20 June by LuvLuvLuv. You can hear it at spectorband.com

Dave Simpson


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/02/first-sight-spector

Cheryl Burke Olivia Wilde Paulina Rubio Kirsten Dunst Vanessa Minnillo

No comments:

Post a Comment