Tag: 2008

Anyone who likes the honest qualities in music will like this. It features nine tracks of crafted melodious music utilising slightly unusual instrumentationH but without all the over-the-top studio production and compression and synthesizers you find on a Thrills recording, for example. I think I have a soft spot for anything that isn’t an American or English accent in it at the moment – it just spangles my charm buttons. Big band though, so they ain’t gonna make any money. Eight-strong’s a four pizza meal time, so tours = loads a £££. But whatever, this recording is an insight into a band who sat home late for fun just making pretty songs for you and I, and us, and it’s all for the love…. But then again, look at the Polyphonic Spree – they’re minted surely?

On the road, some musicians blog, others take photos and maybe one or two
write a journal. I’d say even less compose instrumental tour diaries. However,
while on tour playing keyboards for Echo and The Bunnymen, Paul Flemming
made memories into songs, composing this wondrous instrumental tour diary
to document his impressions of the different places and times he performed.
And the result, a thirteen-track industrial drive along roads of ambient
melodies, which is just as much a conceptual log as it is skin pricklingly
authentic. Though exactly what relationship each song, its arrangement,
sound and mood has to the location that Flemming credits to it is unmeasurable,
the Brighton inspired ‘Pebble Shore’ trickles piano drops on your cheek
while ‘Red Skies’ and ‘Factories’ – recorded in his home studio – dances
flashily in front of a comparatively sombre Mogwai.

Paul flemming has delivered a faultless piece of instumental music that captures the spirit of eno, neu all the way through to modern post rock and chamber music. the album swerves from haunting piano pieces ala donnie darko full of melancholy to driving upbeat kraut inspired propulsive grooves. this is getting heavy rotation in rough trade east and is one of our tips for the top in 2008 oh and by the way he is the touring keyboard player fro echo and the bunnymen if you want some information to dazzle your friends.

“What a little belter this is. Pure, head-on pop music, fabby guitar riffs, plumptious organ, verses, choruses, middle 8 -all present and correct. he AA side ‘Orders’ reminds me of early Sparks, never a bad look. Intelligent stuff, quoting the right sources but never simply copying. This could be a very good year for Silvery. They should be filling the Radio 1 playlist in place of the ghastly Feeling. Buy this record”

“SILVERY � Horrors (Blow Up) � Much anticipated new single from the London band and more of their very English fairground infectiousness � think Sparks, think spinning on the waltzers at the fair in the lights of night, think XTC, candy floss and toffee apples, brightly painted hobby horses, think Ziggy Stardust, Parklife/Poplife style Blur goodness. They�ve been one of London�s best kept secrets for a little while now, packed out gigs in Camden and such, building a genuine following and a really worth of mouth flow. Silvery make timeless English pop music, a slighty quirky edge, nothing that ever stops that pop flow though. They have a slightly eccentric charm, a bright palette, those not quite pristine bandsman uniforms and those chiming keyboards. The debut album is not far away now, this should more than wet your appetite.”