At last, one of last year's most hotly-fancied new bands deliver
their debut album, and it's an absolute classic.
In January 2000, four young men, Jason (voice, piano, guitar),
Sam (keyboards, devices), Woody (bass, omnichord) and
Butch (drums, percussion), emerged blinking from their bunker
with the marvellous Winterlight - the first single on Domino
offshoot Dusty Company - which amazed everyone concerned
by picking up copious daytime Radio 1 plays, being awarded
Single Of the Week in both NME and Melody Maker, selling
out its limited pressing in two weeks and slipping into the Top
100. Since then they have toured Britain three times, visited
Europe twice, recorded four radio sessions, shot TV shows in
Abbey Road and on Brighton Pier, played Scott Walker's
Meltdown with Elliot Smith, collected rave reviews and
venerable fans with their subsequent singles (Don't Let the
Cold In prompted Jarvis Cocker to invite them to support Pulp,
Something To Look Forward To took them out on the road with
The Delgados) and generally spent the year in a blur of
activity.
Somehow, in the middle all that, they managed to record their
first album, during occasional, between-tour visits to a studio
in Hove. The result, Clearlake Lido, is a surprising, rich and
confident collection of psychedelic pop nuggets, marbled with
beautiful melodies, arresting arrangements and witty, touching
lyrics.
It includes all the singles, the full 7 minute version of
Winterlight and live highlights Let Go, Sunday Evening,
Jumble Sailing, I Want To Live In A Dream and These Things
Are Sent To Try Us.
Unusually, Clearlake like to combine taut songwriting with
studio experimentation.
'We aim to write songs that engage people emotionally but are
set in their own sonic universe,' says frontman Jason Pegg.
'We're so affected by music. It's a way of bringing order to
abstract sound, to balance disarray and beauty and that's why
it's eternally fascinating.'
A full UK tour will accompany Clearlake Lido's release on CD
and vinyl on April 2, 2001.
