Deep Cut - Different Planet

Long-awaited third album! A superb distillation of psychedelic rock, dream-pop and indie!

I have to admit I've only recently become aware of Deep Cut despite this being their third album, but my interest is more than piqued! A quick history - the band formed in 2006 since when they've put out a couple of long-players – the excellently-titled My Thoughts Light Fires (2009) and Disorientation (2011). The band's main songwriters are Mat Flint (ex-Revolver) and Emma Bailey. Mat's brother Simon plays bass and Ian Button (Death In Vegas, Papernut Cambridge) is on the drums. After an extended break the band are back with a new album. Different Planet came out a couple of weeks ago on the Gare du Nord label.

I've had the album as soundtrack for my commute to and from work on these recent cold dark days and it's helped keep any seasonal affective disorder at bay. The band's influences are many, easy to detect and proudly worn on their sleeves so to speak. There are traces of The Byrds, Velvet Underground, Cocteau Twins, early Primal Scream, House Of Love, Phil Spector, Sarah Records, Lush, Motown and The Jesus And Mary Chain. But as we all know influences are only half the story, it's how they're mixed and presented that matters. Different Planet contains ten tracks that are catchy, infectious, energetic and engaging.

Take their track 'No' which opens the album. Cheeky little steals from either The Byrds 'Eight Miles High' or Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme', and the VU's 'I Can't Stand It' underpinned by pounding beats, jangling guitars before building into a wall of noise containing riffing guitars, handclaps, and those awesome boy/girl harmonies.

If you want to pigeonhole the record Indie, Dreampop or Shoegaze would be most apt given the shimmering textures and effect-driven sounds that permeate the album, though categorisation is only half the story. What really impresses is the distillation of influences, bold production and strong songs. Neat work indeed.

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Papernut Cambridge - Love The Things Your Lover Loves

They are the 'nut, the 'nut, the Papernut! Happy Hauntology for now people!

We've covered Papernut cambridge's last two LPs on Harmonic Distortion before, 2014's There's No Underground and last year's cover set Nutlets 1967-80. Both great albums, but incredibly the band have found an extra gear. Their latest album, Love The Things Your Lover Loves, continues the theme of the preceding records ('70s-inspired upbeat glam-pop) but brings it into sharper focus.

Papernut Cambridge are a loose collective put together by head 'nut Ian Button, a musician who first came to prominence in the 1980s with Thrashing Doves and is perhaps best known as guitarist for Death In Vegas. For all his his '80s success and art-rock renown he comes across here as someone who thinks music peaked in 1973 with David Essex's “Rock On”. He might just have a point!

Love The Things Your Lover Loves features music that's informed by the soundtrack of childhood, but not in a wistful, nostalgic, life-was-better-then way, there's more of a positivity about it, it's more upbeat and celebratory. Call it Happy Hauntology if you want a genre. Button's take on retro-ish, warm, humanistic pop for now people has reached a new peak.

 

Whether celebrating fine monastic wines (Chartreuse), appreciating your loved ones (title track), or exercising some lyrical whimsy (St Nicholas Vicarage) the album has a much need optimism and feelgood factor about it, which chimes nicely with it's early summer release. This is complimented by the simple but effective artwork - a refreshingly simple two-coloured heart logo that's crying out to be stencilled onto a brick walls all over the country.

As always with Papernut Cambridge the album comes in a variety of different formats and options, full details of which can be found on the band's website. A special treat for analogue fans is the vinyl version which comes as two white vinyl 10” housed in a High Street style carrier bag (and true to the '70s spirit they won't charge you an extra 5p for it!)

Click here for Papernut Cambridge's website.

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Papernut Cambridge - There's No Underground

Refracted glam meets bubblegum and Brit-pop for a sadness-tinged postcard from the end of the line.

Papernut Cambridge may well be the best ever composite band name for anyone wanting to evoke an aura of Englishness, nostalgia, soft psychedelia and a hint of autumnal melancholia. The right name choice then for a band whose music contains all these things and more.

Papernut Cambridge is the brainchild of one Ian Button, former member of Death In Vegas turned music producer and drummer for Wreckless Eric no less. For this, the band's second long player he's drafted in a loose collective of pals that include former Hefner frontman Darren Hayman, Death In Vegas bandmate Mat Flint and three quarters of the Mary Epworth band.

There's No Underground is an album that only someone of a certain age could have made. In some ways a tribute to the pre-punk '70s, when bubblegum pop and glam-rock ruled the charts and airwaves. A Cloud Fallen Down From The Sky brings to mind Terry Jacks' Seasons In The Sun, Nutflake Social is bubblegum pop that borrows melodically from Rocky Horror's The Time Warp, while Accident's Children takes late-era T Rex as its sonic template those records when Marc was getting turned on to sophisticated New York soul and disco.

A lot of artists and albums have mined this era, Denim's Back In Denim, Vinny Peculiar's Other People Like Me and The Dirtbombs' Ooey Gooey Chewy KaBluey! being just three that spring to mind. What sets There's No Underground apart is that it's no nudge-y in-joke. Although inspired by the pop-tastic early '70s it has a strange suburban sadness running through it. Perhaps due in no small part to it's end-of-the-line geographical genesis. (The album title refers not to some comment on today's musical climate, but to Ian Button's home on the edge of south-east London). For all this the tunes are still as catchy as a keep-net.

There's No Underground is available on a variety of formats (including a triple 7” pack), each containing different mixes and alternate takes. Take your pick! Whichever format you choose you won't be disappointed by the songs.

Click here for the Papernut Cambridge website.

Click here for Gare Du Nord Records.