Introducing: Islet
Post categories: Artists,ÌýSouth Wales
| 17:44 UK time, Monday, 5 October 2009
We have some unwritten rules at 91Èȱ¬ Introducing show, some unspoken rules that we all accept when discussing and booking session bands.
a) We have to be pretty excited about said band.
b) We have to have seen them live to check its not all pro-tools skills.
c) We have to have quality recordings from said band that won't sound like someone screaming on a building site or singing in the shower!
d) We read all about them, and get some info from their MySpace/or website. Kudos points for good design.
e) We even sometimes laugh about their funny influences section, and home made YouTube clips from the rehearsal rooms.
f) Check their top friends too - this tells you a lot!
a) We have to be pretty excited about said band.
b) We have to have seen them live to check its not all pro-tools skills.
c) We have to have quality recordings from said band that won't sound like someone screaming on a building site or singing in the shower!
d) We read all about them, and get some info from their MySpace/or website. Kudos points for good design.
e) We even sometimes laugh about their funny influences section, and home made YouTube clips from the rehearsal rooms.
f) Check their top friends too - this tells you a lot!
Yes, above are our lovely quaint rules for running a new music show and
doshing out sessions to the most deserving, har-working-gigging bands
with the funniest biogs. Thankfully, rules are there to be BROKEN!
This week's session band have thrown out the antiquated rule book, and got Radio One and NME's attention in the process. From one humble gig a snowball has started a startling journey, and growing in pace and size.
Islet are a supergroup already. The members are Mark and JT from
Attack and Defend and Them Squirrels, Alex from Fredrick Stanley Star,
Sweet Baboo, and Them Squirrels, and Emma formerly of The Victorian
English Gentlemens Club.
As a band they make a sound/noise which combines elements from all of these bands, a squalor of noises, guitars that bend out of shape, immediate and demanding percussion, loud and quiet fragments of song, off-mic shouty voices, sweet and sour vocals, and its all very very loud!
have focused on the DIY. "(Islet) have decided to shirk all channels of online promotion and networking, because, well they can... They'd also not gotten round to recording any songs yet.
"They've built up an amazing following just from their insane local live shows, which spawned a series of fan sites and blogs devoted to them."
And now, this is becoming their 'story'. The band without recordings and websites. Are they purposely setting out to be obtuse and obscure? I asked them this On Air on the last 91Èȱ¬ Introducing show.
Ìý
Every time we play - we sound how we want to sound - your creating the best sound you can on stage, with the amps and everything, so we're not expecting the sound engineer to sort it all out for you!"
Ìý
"We're not being obscure. We've only done eight gigs. I don't know how important it is to desperately need web presence when you've only done eight gigs," says Emma.
"There's no point getting a MySpace and putting some pictures of ourselves up. But we do now, and we reserve the right to do it if we want to!"
"It probably is a slight reaction to the fact that bands build MySpaces before they've even gigged these days," says Mark.
Thankfully, this side of the story is short lived, as we now have recordings, and a thanks to Andrew Dubber and Ben Walker, who built the website after seeing the band play at Unconvention at Swansea.
A 91Èȱ¬ session, an NME spread, a website built for them, its all happening right now for Islet.
Don't miss out, check out the full session here for the next three days.
Beth
This week's session band have thrown out the antiquated rule book, and got Radio One and NME's attention in the process. From one humble gig a snowball has started a startling journey, and growing in pace and size.
Islet are a supergroup already. The members are Mark and JT from
Attack and Defend and Them Squirrels, Alex from Fredrick Stanley Star,
Sweet Baboo, and Them Squirrels, and Emma formerly of The Victorian
English Gentlemens Club.As a band they make a sound/noise which combines elements from all of these bands, a squalor of noises, guitars that bend out of shape, immediate and demanding percussion, loud and quiet fragments of song, off-mic shouty voices, sweet and sour vocals, and its all very very loud!
have focused on the DIY. "(Islet) have decided to shirk all channels of online promotion and networking, because, well they can... They'd also not gotten round to recording any songs yet.
"They've built up an amazing following just from their insane local live shows, which spawned a series of fan sites and blogs devoted to them."
And now, this is becoming their 'story'. The band without recordings and websites. Are they purposely setting out to be obtuse and obscure? I asked them this On Air on the last 91Èȱ¬ Introducing show.
Ìý
Every time we play - we sound how we want to sound - your creating the best sound you can on stage, with the amps and everything, so we're not expecting the sound engineer to sort it all out for you!"
Ìý
"We're not being obscure. We've only done eight gigs. I don't know how important it is to desperately need web presence when you've only done eight gigs," says Emma.
"There's no point getting a MySpace and putting some pictures of ourselves up. But we do now, and we reserve the right to do it if we want to!"
"It probably is a slight reaction to the fact that bands build MySpaces before they've even gigged these days," says Mark.
Thankfully, this side of the story is short lived, as we now have recordings, and a thanks to Andrew Dubber and Ben Walker, who built the website after seeing the band play at Unconvention at Swansea.
A 91Èȱ¬ session, an NME spread, a website built for them, its all happening right now for Islet.
Don't miss out, check out the full session here for the next three days.
Beth
Adam Walton
Bethan Elfyn
James McLaren
Laura Sinnerton
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