The Soundcarriers - Harmonium

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4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 21 May, 2009.

I'm down with the sound of Nottingham based quartet The Soundcarriers and their jazz influenced psychedelic pop sound. New Long player 'Harmonium' has a lot going on, from the master class player to the meticulously well thought out production job, this record is clearly a labour of love for the group. 'Harmonium' immediately reminds me of Stereolab and Broadcast, two other groups that pay very close attention to detail when it comes to song craft and production. Soundcarriers come complete with a full arsenal of instruments; lilted guitars, gutsy bass lines, washy and reverberant drums are accompanied by a huge array of additional sounds including flutes, organs, harps, recorders and the occasional stylophone too. Vocal melodies sound like they've been lifted directly from some obscure 60 pop seven inch, sounding immediately familiar and reassuring. Musically the group wander through the best traits of 60's psychedelia, lounge jazz, euro-indie pop and canterbury era folk prog. For me, this is an excellent combination of influences and couple that with an obsession with the unorthodox production techniques of Phil Spector and David Axelrod and you've got one tasty and inventive sounding record. They are definitely influenced directly by certain 60's psych pop groups but i can't put my finger on which, maybe United States of America.....i can't quite work it out but rest assured this is some stylish stuff yo! Very enjoyable.

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The word psychedelic is bandied around pretty freely, but The Soundcarriers are the real deal. The debut album from this Nottingham-based band is psychedelic in the less well-trodden way: jazz-influenced, free-thinking and utterly spaced out.

Harmonium was self-produced by the band in their own studio using entirely analogue equipment. The unorthodox techniques of David Axelrod and Phil Spector were a constant source of inspiration, and the band employed their full arsenal of equipment, from harps and organs to flutes, recorders, stylophones and chimes.

The result is an incredibly lush debut album that’s quite unlike anything else that’s around at the moment. At the root is some richly vulnerable optimism. It takes a weird inner strength to pit flutes and quiet voices against drums and electronics and the rest of the world.

TRACKLISTING: 1. Intro 2. Time Will Come 3. Uncertainty 4. Caught By The Sun 5. Calling Me 6. Calling Me reprise 7. Volcano 8. Been Out To Sea 9. Without Sound 10. Without Sound Pt II 11. Cannonball 12. Let It Ride 13. Falling For You 14. Glide 15. On That Line 16. Harmonium

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