On 23rd April, CYMBALS will release their new record, Sideways, Sometimes, through Tough Love. Written, recorded and produced over five days on Lightship 95, a boat moored in the Thames, the EP has a cleaner, more coherent feel than last year’s debut album, Unlearn.
Enlisting a fourth member, Neil Gillespie took over from Sean on drums, while Sean returned to his first instrument, bass, filling out the space in their sound. Drawing on Yo La Tengo and New Order, the songs follow a pattern, forming what the band says is “a circle describing a moment in their lives.”
Sideways, Sometimes is available on CD, LP and download. A limited edition run of 300 white 12″ vinyl (with a free download code) will be released for Record Store Day on 21st April. The Tough Love Shop has a limited number of these records available for pre-order to guarantee that fans are able to get hold of a copy. Continuing the theme for somewhat special artwork, the band enlisted Robin Hulme, a fabric designer for Liberty, to create a one-off design that will grace the cover of the record.
Pre-order Sideways, Sometimes exclusively from Tough Love below: LP+download – limited edition of 300 CD
Fader have premiered a track from the record, “No Bad Decisions”, which can be streamed here or listened to below.
CYMBALS embark on short tour throughout February to celebrate the launch of the Noisey Youtube channel.
February
22nd – VICE/Noisey Launch Tour @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds – Free entry
23rd – VICE/Noisey Launch Tour @ Old Blue Last, London – Free entry
24th – VICE/Noisey Launch Tour @ Green Door Store, Brighton – Free entry
25th – Midnight A Go Go @ The Drop, London
There’s a scene in Trainspotting, you’ll know the one. Not the most memorable, but one that stuck with me nonetheless, perhaps through fear, perhaps through its accuracy. Either way, you’ll know the scene because you’ll know the feeling it conjured:
Sick Boy: It’s certainly a phenomenon in all walks of life.
Renton: What do you mean?
Sick Boy: Well, at one time, you’ve got it, and then you lose it, and it’s gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed.
Renton: Lou Reed, some of his solo stuff’s not bad.
Sick Boy: No, it’s not bad. But it’s not great either, is it? And in your heart you kind of know that although it sounds all right, it’s actually just…shite.
Renton: So who else?
Sick Boy: Charlie Nicholas, David Niven, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Presley…
Renton: OK, OK, so what’s the point you’re trying to make?
Sick Boy: All I’m trying to do, Mark, is help you understand that The Name of the Rose is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
Renton: What about The Untouchables?
Sick Boy: I don’t rate that at all.
Renton: Despite the Academy Award?
Sick Boy: That means fuck all. It’s a sympathy vote.
Renton: Right. So we all get old and then we can’t hack it anymore. Is that it?
Sick Boy: Yeah.
Renton: That’s your theory?
Sick Boy: Yeah. Beautifully fucking illustrated.
To have had it and then lost it is better than to have never had it at all. To have got it back, well that’s divine inspiration. And as such, it feels remarkable to have Kotki Dwa back, their poetry and ebullience-masking-sadness fully in tact.
I don’t care about production values, I care about songs. I’d like to assume that’s the common ground that Gorgeous Bully and I share, but they’re probably far smarter than that.
“Bullring” is a ‘song’, no doubt. But it also embraces ‘lo-fi’ as an instrument, not just a consequence of circumstance. I wouldn’t want to hear “Bullring” cleaned up, because it’s charms are in its imperfections, in the possibilities it suggests not in what it actually is. Absence is its essence. And it’s that contrariness that keeps drawing me back.
In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep.
From the mountains of faith to the river so deep. I must be looking for something, something sacred that I lost. But the river is wide and it’s too hard to cross.
And even though I know the river is wide, I walk down every evening and stand on the shore and I try to cross to the opposite side. So I can finally find what I’ve been looking for.
In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep.
Former Lovvers main man Shaun Hencher leaves behind the bile and instead skips back into earshot to merrily lead us all down the river(s cuomo) of golden dreams.
And Sexbeat are releasing it on 7″ on 30th January. You don’t need me to tell you what to do. But if I were to, you’d be guided towards this buy link right here.
