Public Service Broadcasting

"Together, the duo explores the past as it looks into the future, with music meant for clubs that doesn't fit neatly into some EDM subgenre or nightlife cliche. It doesn't force you to dance; it isn't incessant so much as bouncy. It's more Kraftwerk than Disclosure. It all sounds fresh." NPR Album of the Week + NPR Tiny Desk Session - NPR

"The most pleasant surprise of the 50 some odd bands I saw at CMJ this year was undoubtedly the London-based pseudonymous musical duo known as Public Service Broadcasting ... Think R2D2 meets RJD2 in an editing workshop at the Anthology Film Archives, with an ipod featuring DJ Shadow, The Books, El Ten Eleven, STRFKR and Kraftwerk." - KCRW

Looking at a photo of J.Willgoose, Esq., bespectacled and dressed head to toe in corduroy, you would be forgiven for thinking he spent most of his days tucked away in darkened libraries. And to be fair, you wouldn’t be too wrong. Except unlike the majority of archive dwellers, his research will not be resigned to history books, but to the mixing decks of one of London’s most innovative electro duos, Public Service Broadcasting.

In their debut full length album, ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’, Public Service Broadcasting aka J.Willgoose, Esq. And Wrigglesworth, have brought the sounds of our grainy past into our electronic future. Sampling archive material from the BFI, StudioCanal and American public information films to staggering effect, each track on this album intersperses excepts from history with masterful production of guitars, electronic instruments, banjos and live drums.

As plucky RP accents run alongside unrelenting beats, we receive tales and lessons from the past that strangely still resonate with our modern lives. Their next single, the dark and distorted ‘Signal 30’ imitates the intensity and rush of speeding along a deserted road at night, a romanticised image that is soon shattered by the increasingly terrifying driving safety messages. While the warnings escalate – “You are driving a little too fast and have a false sense of confidence” - it’s clear there is no falseness in PSB’s confidence, they have earned every ounce. ‘Night Mail’ follows the journey of our nation’s mail, sampling an information film about the postal service and the transport that delivers letters across the country as drums emulate the sound of speeding trains. Released last year, ‘Everest’ celebrates the successes of the past with a rousing and majestic sound, sampling the 1953 film ‘The Conquest of Everest’ charting the first successful ascent of the great mountain. Demonstrating perhaps the most inspirational use of a banjo I’ve heard, ‘ROYGBIV’ is a simple and beautiful track, a summery and chilled piece of aspirational thinking of “a bright new era dawning”; if you are to read between the lines, they could very well be talking about themselves.

But for Public Service Broadcasting, there is a very self aware humour throughout, notably in the homage to vintage fashion in ‘The Now Generation’, with its nods to band favourite corduroy - “the fabric woven for the now generation” - slickly styled to the electro beats that would seamlessly soundtrack any modern fashion show.

As you can probably deduce, yes, like any good public service announcement, I have emerged brainwashed and wholly converted to their ways. While the words may be firmly seating in the past, this is truly music of the future. Informative, educational, and yes, very much entertaining. Unlike anything you’re likely to have heard before in full album form, Public Service Broadcasting are an innovative and inspirational pairing, breathing new life not only into the archived sounds they use but the electro music world itself. And you can put that in your archive. Absolutely essential listening. - Artrocker