| Spotlight Kid — Ten Thousand Hours (2014) |
Spotlight Kid — Ten Thousand Hours
♦♦ U.K. dream pop group that takes its primary inspiration from classic shoegaze and psychedelic rock of the '90s.
♦♦ Spotlight Kid is an English five piece who make reverb-soaked noise-pop of the finest order, with layered harmonies & swirling distorted guitars which at one time may have sat happily grinning among the Creation Records roster of the 90's. 'Ten Thousand Hours' is their 3rd album and latest offering.
♦♦ Every track is soaked in melody and atmosphere layering Katty Heath's voice, much bolder and upfront this time, against pounding drums, bass, shimmering guitars and keys. Produced by Todd Howe who can also be found playing guitar in The Boxer Rebellion. He has helped add a coherent sense to the whole album, which was written and recorded in several studios, including their own basement studio in Nottingham over last year.
♦♦ Ten Thousand Hours is a huge step forward from the previous album but instantly recognizable as the same band — loud, uplifting, melodic and noisy.
Formed: 2006
Location: Nottingham, England
Album release: March 11, 2014
Record Label: Saint Marie Records
Duration: 37:14
Tracks:
1 Ten Thousand Hours 1:59
2 Sugar Pills 4:08
3 A Minor Character 4:42
4 I'll Do Anything 4:36
5 Can't Let Go 4:08
6 Hold On 4:14
7 Budge Up 4:19
8 Bright Eyes 4:34
9 Disaster Tourist 4:30
℗ 2014 Saint Marie
Personnel:
♦♦ Chris Davis (Drums)
♦♦ Matt Holt (Bass)
♦♦ Katty Heath (Vocals)
♦♦ James Taylor (Guitar)
♦♦ Rob McCleary (Guitar & Vocals)
Credits:
♦♦ Chris Davis Composer, Drums, Electronics, Group Member, Guitar, Lyricist
♦♦ Katty Heath Group Member, Vocals
♦♦ Matt Holt Bass, Group Member
♦♦ Todd Howe Keyboards, Mixing
♦♦ Rob McCleary Group Member, Guitar, Vocals
♦♦ Chris Moore Group Member, Guitar
♦♦ Wyatt Parkins Artwork, Design
♦♦ Karl Skivington Group Member, Guitar, Mastering, Synthesizer
Album Moods: Aggressive Atmospheric Bittersweet Brooding Dramatic Dreamy Energetic Exciting Graceful Intense Languid Melancholy Narcotic Nocturnal Somber Sprawling Uncompromising Freewheeling Raucous Rousing Street-Smart Volatile Boisterous Fiery Visceral
♦♦ Recorded over the last year at Purple studios, Norwich (RIP), First Love Studios, Nottingham and Roden St Studios, Nottingham. Produced by the band and Todd Howe from The Boxer Rebellion.
Review by Fred Thomas; Score: ****
♦♦ Nottingham-based shoegaze revivalists Spotlight Kid move into more daring territory with their third album, Ten Thousand Hours, a foggy-eyed look into melancholic walls of guitar fuzz and more interesting production ideas than many of their contemporaries. Shoegaze-as-primary-influence made a huge comeback in the 2010s, with many indie bands aspiring to the template of the genre’s masters, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride.
♦♦ While the “big three” of shoegaze get name-checked frequently and their influence can definitely be heard in Spotlight Kid‘s sound, the band delves deeper into the shoegaze canon and also challenges its own sonic palette. Clear standout “Sugar Pills” definitely includes the big drum sound that made so many of Ride‘s early songs so bright, but it also builds on glowing flutelike samples, hazy synth tones, and a brilliantly catchy melody buried beneath the waves of sound. The moody “Budge Up” borrows melody and lyrics from an early Dinosaur Jr. tune, but only vaguely, melding the familiar melody with a brooding push similar to that of Lush‘s best tracks and glittery found-sound samples. By the song’s end, vocalist Katty Heath is referencing a breathy Pixies chorus, but quickly submerging it below her band’s wall of sound. This type of studio trickery reaches its best heights on “Hold On,” a pastiche of acoustic guitar strums and fragmented vocal samples, hedging toward the same nebulous, dreamlike territory as the Cocteau Twins. The sounds on Ten Thousand Hours are more adventurous and lasting than the shoegaze revisitations of many of Spotlight Kid‘s contemporaries. The album firmly roots their sound in a more original melding of exploratory dream pop and solid rock backbones, and the results are both extremely listenable and interesting.
Website: http://www.spotlightkidsound.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spotlightkidsnd
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Spotlightkidsound
Agent:
Bio:
♦♦ Spotlight Kid continue their assault against sonic mediocrity with an assuredness and an emotional depth so many guitar bands are currently lacking.
♦♦ This is the sound of a band rising to the top of their game, while wearing their hearts on their sleeves and performing live shows like their next meal depends on it. ♦♦ Influences from the likes of The Cure, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine have allowed Spotlight Kid to produce a heady mix that runs through the entire gamut of emotions.
♦♦ The new album moves from the brittle melodic "Haunting Me", a towering epic, underpinned by hopeless romantic loss, before plunging without warning headlong into the Mary Chainesque two-minute punk blast "Plan Comes Apart," providing a marvellous wake-up call to the senses. This is exactly what the album is about. You're in the arms of your lover one minute and then cast into a dark void the next.
♦♦ Spotlight Kid's music features mixtures of Shoegaze, Krautrock and 90s Psychedelia. Fuzzy guitars wrapped in layers of reverb and boy/girl vocals subtly building on the layered walls of distortion. In the last year Spotlight Kid have supported The Joy Formidable on their UK sell out tour, been chosen by BBC introducing to play at this year’s Glastonbury and have been play-listed on Radio 1 as well as numerous plays on 6music and XFM.
• The Guardian’s “New Band of the Day”
• The Guardian’s English representative @ Music Alliance Pact band of the Month — September
• Huw Stephens played single on his Radio 1 show
• Gideon Coe played a new track from the album on his 6music show
• Huey Morgan played album track “April” on his Radio 2 show
• Jen Long played “Creeps” on her Radio 1 show
• Don Letts played album track “April” on his 6music show
• Frank Skinner played single on his Absolute Radio show
• Jon Kennedy XFM played single on X-posure show a few times
• Music first — Frank McCarthy on BFBS “Album of the Week”
• Q Radio — New to Q played a track from the album
• Resonance FM — “Pull the Plug” show played the single.
• Drowned in Sound 8/10 review for the album “there's little doubt that Spotlight Kid's status as one of the most innovative bands treading the UK circuit is all but assured”
• Confirmed upcoming reviews in Q Magazine & MOJO for the album
• The Fly “First On” feature & “Ones to Watch”
• The Sun “Something for the weekend” feature
• Nottingham Evening Post feature
• Me Plus One review 8/10
• Dani Charlton (Amazing Radio) played the single
• Goldierocks played single on The Selector show on NME Radio.
• Artrocker Radio played new single
• The Selector show have invited the band to play at their monthly night in London in November
• Paul Lester (Amazing Radio) played single on his show
• Radio 1 — Playlist BBC Introducing “Band of the week” which meant daytime radio play on all major shows including Fearne Cotton, Scott Mills, Greg James, Edith Bowman and Huw Stephens
• Radio 1 — Jen Long interviewed band at Glastonbury and played live track “Forget Yourself in Me
• 6music — Steve Lamacq
• 6music — Tom Robinson — continuous support played “Haunting Me” several times and played LIVE session
• 6music — Gideon Coe
• XFM — John Kennedy
• BBC Radio Nottingham — Dean Jackson Show has played numerous tracks and recorded live sessions
• Amazing Radio — Single of the week
• Trent FM — New Music Podcast
Discography:
• Departure (2006), Club AC30
• Crystal Dreams EP (2010)
• April/All is Real limited edition 7" vinyl single (2010)
• Disaster Tourist (2011), Club AC30
• Ten Thousand Hours (2014)
© Spotlight Kid performing at the Summer Sundae festival, Leicester, August 2010 ♦♦
_______________________________________________________________
| Spotlight Kid — Ten Thousand Hours (2014) |
♦♦ U.K. dream pop group that takes its primary inspiration from classic shoegaze and psychedelic rock of the '90s.
♦♦ Spotlight Kid is an English five piece who make reverb-soaked noise-pop of the finest order, with layered harmonies & swirling distorted guitars which at one time may have sat happily grinning among the Creation Records roster of the 90's. 'Ten Thousand Hours' is their 3rd album and latest offering.
♦♦ Every track is soaked in melody and atmosphere layering Katty Heath's voice, much bolder and upfront this time, against pounding drums, bass, shimmering guitars and keys. Produced by Todd Howe who can also be found playing guitar in The Boxer Rebellion. He has helped add a coherent sense to the whole album, which was written and recorded in several studios, including their own basement studio in Nottingham over last year.
♦♦ Ten Thousand Hours is a huge step forward from the previous album but instantly recognizable as the same band — loud, uplifting, melodic and noisy.
Formed: 2006
Location: Nottingham, England
Album release: March 11, 2014
Record Label: Saint Marie Records
Duration: 37:14
Tracks:
1 Ten Thousand Hours 1:59
2 Sugar Pills 4:08
3 A Minor Character 4:42
4 I'll Do Anything 4:36
5 Can't Let Go 4:08
6 Hold On 4:14
7 Budge Up 4:19
8 Bright Eyes 4:34
9 Disaster Tourist 4:30
℗ 2014 Saint Marie
Personnel:
♦♦ Chris Davis (Drums)
♦♦ Matt Holt (Bass)
♦♦ Katty Heath (Vocals)
♦♦ James Taylor (Guitar)
♦♦ Rob McCleary (Guitar & Vocals)
Credits:
♦♦ Chris Davis Composer, Drums, Electronics, Group Member, Guitar, Lyricist
♦♦ Katty Heath Group Member, Vocals
♦♦ Matt Holt Bass, Group Member
♦♦ Todd Howe Keyboards, Mixing
♦♦ Rob McCleary Group Member, Guitar, Vocals
♦♦ Chris Moore Group Member, Guitar
♦♦ Wyatt Parkins Artwork, Design
♦♦ Karl Skivington Group Member, Guitar, Mastering, Synthesizer
Album Moods: Aggressive Atmospheric Bittersweet Brooding Dramatic Dreamy Energetic Exciting Graceful Intense Languid Melancholy Narcotic Nocturnal Somber Sprawling Uncompromising Freewheeling Raucous Rousing Street-Smart Volatile Boisterous Fiery Visceral
♦♦ Recorded over the last year at Purple studios, Norwich (RIP), First Love Studios, Nottingham and Roden St Studios, Nottingham. Produced by the band and Todd Howe from The Boxer Rebellion.
Review by Fred Thomas; Score: ****
♦♦ Nottingham-based shoegaze revivalists Spotlight Kid move into more daring territory with their third album, Ten Thousand Hours, a foggy-eyed look into melancholic walls of guitar fuzz and more interesting production ideas than many of their contemporaries. Shoegaze-as-primary-influence made a huge comeback in the 2010s, with many indie bands aspiring to the template of the genre’s masters, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride.
♦♦ While the “big three” of shoegaze get name-checked frequently and their influence can definitely be heard in Spotlight Kid‘s sound, the band delves deeper into the shoegaze canon and also challenges its own sonic palette. Clear standout “Sugar Pills” definitely includes the big drum sound that made so many of Ride‘s early songs so bright, but it also builds on glowing flutelike samples, hazy synth tones, and a brilliantly catchy melody buried beneath the waves of sound. The moody “Budge Up” borrows melody and lyrics from an early Dinosaur Jr. tune, but only vaguely, melding the familiar melody with a brooding push similar to that of Lush‘s best tracks and glittery found-sound samples. By the song’s end, vocalist Katty Heath is referencing a breathy Pixies chorus, but quickly submerging it below her band’s wall of sound. This type of studio trickery reaches its best heights on “Hold On,” a pastiche of acoustic guitar strums and fragmented vocal samples, hedging toward the same nebulous, dreamlike territory as the Cocteau Twins. The sounds on Ten Thousand Hours are more adventurous and lasting than the shoegaze revisitations of many of Spotlight Kid‘s contemporaries. The album firmly roots their sound in a more original melding of exploratory dream pop and solid rock backbones, and the results are both extremely listenable and interesting.
Website: http://www.spotlightkidsound.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spotlightkidsnd
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Spotlightkidsound
Agent:
Bio:
♦♦ Spotlight Kid continue their assault against sonic mediocrity with an assuredness and an emotional depth so many guitar bands are currently lacking.
♦♦ This is the sound of a band rising to the top of their game, while wearing their hearts on their sleeves and performing live shows like their next meal depends on it. ♦♦ Influences from the likes of The Cure, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine have allowed Spotlight Kid to produce a heady mix that runs through the entire gamut of emotions.
♦♦ The new album moves from the brittle melodic "Haunting Me", a towering epic, underpinned by hopeless romantic loss, before plunging without warning headlong into the Mary Chainesque two-minute punk blast "Plan Comes Apart," providing a marvellous wake-up call to the senses. This is exactly what the album is about. You're in the arms of your lover one minute and then cast into a dark void the next.
♦♦ Spotlight Kid's music features mixtures of Shoegaze, Krautrock and 90s Psychedelia. Fuzzy guitars wrapped in layers of reverb and boy/girl vocals subtly building on the layered walls of distortion. In the last year Spotlight Kid have supported The Joy Formidable on their UK sell out tour, been chosen by BBC introducing to play at this year’s Glastonbury and have been play-listed on Radio 1 as well as numerous plays on 6music and XFM.
• The Guardian’s “New Band of the Day”
• The Guardian’s English representative @ Music Alliance Pact band of the Month — September
• Huw Stephens played single on his Radio 1 show
• Gideon Coe played a new track from the album on his 6music show
• Huey Morgan played album track “April” on his Radio 2 show
• Jen Long played “Creeps” on her Radio 1 show
• Don Letts played album track “April” on his 6music show
• Frank Skinner played single on his Absolute Radio show
• Jon Kennedy XFM played single on X-posure show a few times
• Music first — Frank McCarthy on BFBS “Album of the Week”
• Q Radio — New to Q played a track from the album
• Resonance FM — “Pull the Plug” show played the single.
• Drowned in Sound 8/10 review for the album “there's little doubt that Spotlight Kid's status as one of the most innovative bands treading the UK circuit is all but assured”
• Confirmed upcoming reviews in Q Magazine & MOJO for the album
• The Fly “First On” feature & “Ones to Watch”
• The Sun “Something for the weekend” feature
• Nottingham Evening Post feature
• Me Plus One review 8/10
• Dani Charlton (Amazing Radio) played the single
• Goldierocks played single on The Selector show on NME Radio.
• Artrocker Radio played new single
• The Selector show have invited the band to play at their monthly night in London in November
• Paul Lester (Amazing Radio) played single on his show
• Radio 1 — Playlist BBC Introducing “Band of the week” which meant daytime radio play on all major shows including Fearne Cotton, Scott Mills, Greg James, Edith Bowman and Huw Stephens
• Radio 1 — Jen Long interviewed band at Glastonbury and played live track “Forget Yourself in Me
• 6music — Steve Lamacq
• 6music — Tom Robinson — continuous support played “Haunting Me” several times and played LIVE session
• 6music — Gideon Coe
• XFM — John Kennedy
• BBC Radio Nottingham — Dean Jackson Show has played numerous tracks and recorded live sessions
• Amazing Radio — Single of the week
• Trent FM — New Music Podcast
Discography:
• Departure (2006), Club AC30
• Crystal Dreams EP (2010)
• April/All is Real limited edition 7" vinyl single (2010)
• Disaster Tourist (2011), Club AC30
• Ten Thousand Hours (2014)
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