Dry the River

Dry The River have spent 2010 steadily building themselves a bit of a reputation for their live show. The London quintet seem to have mastered the technique to create songs that will freeze snowflakes in the sky all around you. They write music that’s touching enough to share a slow dance to yet interesting enough to listen and love in your bedroom alone. Other writers have compared them to Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale, but they lack the pomp of Mumford, and they are less heartbroken and more literate than Noah. Its just an easy way out for lazy writers who can determine the difference between rock bands but apparently fall short of doing the same with other genres, take folk for example. Next year we are expecting Dry The River to release more music, play lots more shows and win over a lot of hearts. - The 405

'I stood inside my father’s house, but we're so far from Bethlehem' This line, taken from the opening track of Dry the River's impromptu gig in Hoxton bar, could easily be seen as an analogy in describing a rather large volume of the band’s work. For these incredibly magnetising young London lads give to their listener what feels like folk tales for the new 'old world' generation.

The writing is so intrinsic in its rhythm, so entirely infused with emotional conviction That their stories of lives lived, through seasons and years that could have been a century back, or lifted from a history thick community near your door step Compel and mesmerise with their beauty and reach inside you with an intensity, that echoes with the power of a gospel hymn.

Either way these tales of time, of love, of religion, of sacrifice and of swallowing life's lessons (often hard) have the exemplary literary, storytelling quality that the music community has longed for, without answer.

Now, finally, these 5 young Englishmen are here, ready. Delivering their tales with the diversity and raw energy that is vital when attempting to draw one's self into the heart of the listener’s memory.

On stage they each hold their own space, honour their own technique and self rhythm, but unite like a family and ignite an entirely captivating presence. Breathing and stretching themselves, for the passion they reveal so youthfully. Creating audio paintings, using strings, electrics, beat and a vocal range that sounds as if it were born from a cathedral.

When the songs come to a close, as a listener you feel almost consoled. As if you yourself had just moved through a chapter of your own life and come out renewed. Leaving you to contemplate what will, indeed, be your next tale?

Holi-May Thomas

- The Hitsheet

Dry the River (No 905)


Hometown: East London.

The lineup: Pete Liddle (vocals, guitar), Matt Taylor (guitar), Scott Miller (bass), Will Harvey (violin), Jon Warren (drums).

The background: Ever so thoughtful of Dry the River to telegraph what they do with that name of theirs: they were never going to be a future dubstep act or a tech-metal crew, were they? There's no risk of you turning up at one of their gigs, wondering what to expect, ear-plugs in hand just in case. Has there ever been a band alluding to nature in their name who were anything other than steeped in folk or country? Apart from Ocean Colour Scene? Readers, feel free to point out our limited knowledge of the rustic-moniker pantheon.

Dry the River, we have been reliably informed, are the subjects of a "furious major-label bidding war" – oddly, the two things selling well at the moment, and being chased by record companies, are the wholly unrelated grime-pop and folk-rock. The one couldn't be more urban, the other offers a glimmer of the pastoral. The former is arguably being enjoyed more widely by high-street kids, the latter more by students, although we're betting Little Lion Man and Pass Out both get hammered at Uni discos. Why? Because they're both immensely catchy and you can bop along to them.

DTR, like Mumford & Sons, know how to construct an infectious semi-acoustic ditty. Their songs, some of them collated on an EP entitled Bible Belt, have a sort of late-19th century American frontier ambience, with references to medicine men and intimations of creeping danger, but that doesn't stop them lodging in your skull. Norwegian songwriter Peter Liddle apparently draws inspiration from the stuff he studied at college, namely Medicine and Anthropology. What began as a solo venture became a band once Liddle recruited "homeless punk-rock drummer" Jon Warren and classically trained violinist William Harvey.

You can't tell from DTR's songs that Warren was once homeless (nor that Liddle is Norwegian), although they do start off acoustically and mournfully before becoming more brisk and jaunty, usually around the one-minute mark, which is hardly punk rock but certainly the energy-flow increases as time goes on. And the violin thing is self-evident – their tunes are doused in Harvey's playing, and in one, Family Tree (which sounds like Nirvana's Lithium with a folkie on the mic), his pizzicato plucking provides the rhythm. Shaker Hymns is another giveaway title – they clearly love Fleet Foxes, but beware: Liddle's choirboy-with-tonsillitis tones are an acquired taste, or rather, a flavour you may not savour for long. But you can see why there's a fuss around DTR, especially on New Ceremony, with its festival crowd-pleasing chorus ("Shine a little light, don't wrestle with the night, don't think about the future ...") which makes us think of Bends-era Radiohead played by buskers who've just been given an amp for Christmas.

The buzz: "Their rattly alt-folk is a rag-tag mixture of Americana, gospel and indie rock."

The truth: Bucolic is the new black.

Most likely to: Be even-tempered.

Least likely to: Team up with Tinie Tempah.

What to buy: A free 3-track EP is available to download from drytheriver.com.

- The Guardian

Un des avantages indéniables dans le dérèglement climatique – Paris, 15 août 2010, 15 degrés et apocalypse diluvienne … on est très loin de l’image que l’on se fait de l’été – est de fureter sur le web là où on aurait habituellement squatté la terrasse d’une crêperie pour se goinfrer de mets majestueusement caloriques.

Dry the River est un jeune quintet « folk » (formé en 2009) qui nous vient une fois de plus de Londres, la ville lumière qui a extirpé quelques combos ayant presque tout inventé depuis les années 60 ce que l’on appelle aujourd’hui la pop. Et ce nouveau combo ne déroge pas à la règle établie depuis : des mélodies simples, des polyphonies qui prennent tout de suite aux tripes et qui donnent le sourire, un peu de cordes pour sublimer le tout, mais surtout, la voix de Peter Liddle, toujours borderline, fragile / fragilisée, qui apporte toute la dimension nécessaire pour différencier un groupe banal de ces petits élus qui retiennent l’attention … le charme est immédiat. Voici 5 vidéos trouvées ci et là via YouTube qui ont pour but de te faire aimer Dry The River :

Dry The River : Shaker Hymns (Gospel Oak Sessions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXlCyUVlzHM

Dry The River : Bible Belt (Watch Listen Tell session)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4EoNZQ0reI
De loin, pour l’instant, mon titre préféré … même si la version acoustique de Shaker Hymns est particulièrement catchy. La version studio de Bible Belt est une pure merveille de douceur intense.

Dry The River : The Chambers and the Valves (Live @ Komedia, Londres)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paFzh2pttNU

Dry The River : Family Tree (BBC Live – Glastonbury)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA1nRmLJRGQ

Dry The River : History Book (Song from a Room Session)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePHLt_q0fg

Oh oui, on imagine très bien ce groupe à Paris, dans une salle genre La Flèche d’Or. Et pour ceux que ca interesseraient, Dry The River n’est pas – encore – signé … en même temps, est-ce nécessaire ? - le hiboo

There is something cinematic about Dry The River‘s music. The song ‘Shaker Hymns’ seems to belong in the opening credits of coming-of-age film, a long tracking shot following teenagers as they cycle through an american suburb. ‘History Book’ soundtracks Michael Cera as he awkwardly strolls alongside an equally awkward love interest. ‘Family Tree’ provides the perfect backdrop to the ever present moment of debasing introspection found in Noah Baumbach et al films, gently waxing the sense of irrevocable forlorn that the lead role suffers before the eventual resolve kicks in on the opening road-movie stomp of ‘The Chambers & The Valves’. D.T.R’s yearning melodies, finger picked and brushed along, mingle with some perfectly pitched harmonies that would make Bon Iver blush, to create a sound that could exist on the road, on the screen and, ultimately, for some, in the heart. - Blue Flowers Music