Alan Dearling
Last evening was a double-header band night upstairs at the Golden Lion in Todmorden. Another Dark Matter Promotion. First on stage, Kraut-electronica with a psych-tinge, from the live version of Lines of Silence. David Little is the common denominator in each and every version of Lines of Silence. Tonight, he was accompanied by Andrea on percussion and second guitar. A half hour of shimmerings and glimmerings of sound. I kind of heard echoes of the Sounds of the Sirens. But, I’m weird, I guess!
Lines of Silence are an ever evolving experimental krautrock band. They say of themselves: “We use digital electronics, motorik beats, improvisation, dub and drone rock guitar explosions to create an immersive, expansive and contemporary take on psychedelia.” At this live gig, they introduced a number of tracks not yet on any of their albums. And there was one track including vocals, which seems to have been a first for them. These tracks were: Wolf, which has been part of their live set list for some time, and Lines in Opposition and Kinetic, both new compositions. David explained that they are working towards their fourth album.
The set ended with the Lines of Silence title track from their third album, ‘The Long Way Home’. In the publicity for the gig, it explains that: “The lead track of the same name was remixed by kraut-legends FaUSt’s Amaury Cambuzat (also of Ulan Bator) who the band met on an experimental music retreat in the Pyrenees in 2023. Electronic Sound described the album as ‘a work that is both wholly unpredictable and also oddly comforting.’ And Moonbuilding Magazine called it ‘great stuff, a proper record that should be listened to from start to finish’.”
A Dirty Sunbeams video from the mesmeric Golden Lion LoS set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LRVP_v75Fc
The Purple Heart Parade were billed as shoegaze. Proponents of a wall of burgeoning sound with wailing, reverb-laden vocals from the telegenic front-man. Lots of visual evidence too…Peter, their singer, is very much in the Iggy sort of mould. As David Little from Lines of Silence told me after the gig: “Yeah totally! I loved their set.” And Catherine Moore wrote on her Facebook feed: “As a friend just said, their records are ‘sublime’. I’m so happy to have seen them playing live again – a wonderful set and Peter Cowap’s voice gave me goosebumps throughout!”
The Purple Heart Parade is a psychedelic rock band that like to create epic landscapes of sound. It’s very immersive, engulfing the audience in the sonic attack, and the lyrics, which they say, offer: “themes of personal experiences and real-life situations.”
There are hints of the Stone Roses and the Black Angels, but it is front-man, Peter who holds the attention with his physical gyrations and his unusual high-pitched, oft-distorted, vocal delivery. The band have featured on a wide range of festivals including Liverpool Psych Fest, Reverence Festival (Portugal), Kendal Calling and have supported many notable bands including The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Puressence, Six By Seven, Swervedriver, Temples, Toy, The Horrors amongst others, with notable allies in peers, including Si Jones & Nick McCabe (The Verve), Mark Gardener (Ride), Simone Butler (Primal Scream), and Sean Lennon – as well as a cult following on a global scale, apparently with South America in particular taking a shine to the band’s engulfing sea of feedback and effortless instrumentation.
‘Petrichor’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYf-SMi6yJc
And, here is another Dirty Sunbeams video, this one of Purple Heart Parade from the Todmorden gig. Tinkling guitars and Peter’s breathy, warbling vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L55HE4EL_Bk
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