Brontosaurus Chorus - Owls

Following an onslaught of excellently received online music videos and a critically acclaimed debut mini-album last year (8/10 in NME), the fabulously named Brontosaurus Chorus at last emerge with their first full length album. Entitled “Owls”, this latest offering precedes even the highest expectations with its faultless delivery of the mixture of embittered lyrical musing and sugar coated pop folk that have become synonymous with this multi-layered London octet. In stark contrast to Brontosaurus Chorus’ previous offering, the mini-album ‘You’ve Created a Monster’, which was set in the summer, this album charts and celebrates the enchanting and haunting phenomenon of life and death in all its guises. Brontosaurus Chorus employ this concept perfectly throughout the album both as a narrative basis in places and a tool in which to embark through chilling atmospheric musical quarters. From the death we fear in childhood nightmares of monsters, and ghost stories, of horror and revenge, and onto the death we learn from in physical loss and mourning of adulthood, through to the death we celebrate giving way to, the “Joie de vivre”. The owls of the title are a symbol of all of this; seen as patient, learned and wise as much as they are seen as ghoulish and mystical night watchmen, aiding and witnessing the darkening of Hallowe’en and the desperations of El Día de los Muertos. Previously compared to the likes of The Polyphonic Spree and Belle and Sebastian, this album appears at first to be in stark contrast to their previous releases. However, although the gloom of the impending wintery months has no doubt affected the spirit within the Brontosaurus Chorus garden camp, the overwhelming pop-sensibilities and perfectly placed sherbet bursts of choral energy have not departed them in any sense. Formed in 2006, the London 8-piece rapidly gained a reputation for joyous, life-affirming live shows which left the audience grinning like fools. October 2007 saw the release of the cutesy “Myth Of Love” as a pink split 7” (with Worcester's And What Will Be Left Of Them?), but with “You've Created A Monster”, the band effortlessly shrugged off the ‘twee’ tag in place of something more dynamic and layered. The string section and lilting trumpet sat alongside guitars and drums that weren't afraid to fizz and bang. The vintage pop voice of Jodie Lowther further enhanced the juxtaposition; a soaring vocal which plumbed far darker subjects than its indie-pop contemporaries. Since then, Brontosaurus Chorus have been joined by new guitarist Rob Britton (formerly of excellent indie outfit Luxembourg) and cellist Helen Jackson, the band have surpassed themselves by expertly self producing this debut album in makeshift studios erected within the confines of their bedrooms. “Supreme melodies... A great start for this impressive band... more of this please” Artrocker // “Like a less mental Los Campesinos jumping around with Arcade Fire's bubblegum pop playing cousins in a parallel universe” God is in the TV // 

Tracklisting:

1. Prelude (Owls) 2. Sandman. 3. Ghosting. 4. ...And You Dance. 5. Louisiana. 6. Annie's Waltz. 7. New Life In Old Bones. 8. One Great Mind. 9. Scissormen. 10. Myth. 11. Coda

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