Empty Pools
Bristol, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Music
Press
"Bristol's guitar scene is set to receive an almighty jolt. Empty Pools share the same open-minded approach which fuelled the post-punk era, with their spiky, jagged rhythms matched by a tattered, frayed aesthetic borrowed from the outer extremities of grunge."
- Clash Magazine
"All flurried, guitar-heavy rejoice. Nothing feels underdone or
underthought - this is exactitude all absolute.” - This Is Fake DIY
"All flurried, guitar-heavy rejoice. Nothing feels underdone or
underthought - this is exactitude all absolute.” - This Is Fake DIY
“Chameleonic post-rock beauty. Blends the angular riffs of Television
with the jazzy post-rock of the Sea and Cake.”
- SPIN
"Good stuff." - BBC Radio 1, Huw Stephens
"Good stuff." - BBC Radio 1, Huw Stephens
“These early tracks show that Empty Pools can be one of the best new bands to come out the area in recent years.” - Music Broke My Bones
“These early tracks show that Empty Pools can be one of the best new bands to come out the area in recent years.” - Music Broke My Bones
“…guitars crunch and swirl intensely before building into a flurry of blazing riffs. It’s twitchy post-rock, it’s angular and arty (there’s also a bit of a funky swagger in there too). But most importantly it never loses sight of the importance of a melody and a great tune. Intelligent and sophisticated but never boring, this is 5 minutes and 29 seconds of intense excitement. I’m starting to expect greatness.” - Planet Notion's Songs for the Week
“…guitars crunch and swirl intensely before building into a flurry of blazing riffs. It’s twitchy post-rock, it’s angular and arty (there’s also a bit of a funky swagger in there too). But most importantly it never loses sight of the importance of a melody and a great tune. Intelligent and sophisticated but never boring, this is 5 minutes and 29 seconds of intense excitement. I’m starting to expect greatness.” - Planet Notion's Songs for the Week
“‘Vanderbilt Cup’ is an honest-to-God slow-burning beauty of a song. It wanders into your consciousness gently, starting off as a softly summery sliver of indie-pop, complemented beautifully by Leah Pritchard’s soft, clear vocal. Almost imperceptibly, though, as it goes on it grows and grows to a satisfyingly hefty fuzz-rock finale… Get to see them as soon as you can.” - Generator
“‘Vanderbilt Cup’ is an honest-to-God slow-burning beauty of a song. It wanders into your consciousness gently, starting off as a softly summery sliver of indie-pop, complemented beautifully by Leah Pritchard’s soft, clear vocal. Almost imperceptibly, though, as it goes on it grows and grows to a satisfyingly hefty fuzz-rock finale… Get to see them as soon as you can.” - Generator
"Destined to rise to the top." - BBC Introducing
“A little gem … brilliant live … marvellous.”
- BBC 6Music
“A little gem … brilliant live … marvellous.”
- BBC 6Music
“It’s always refreshing to hear an intriguing band emerge in an often beat-blinded Bristol, and a handful of tight and dynamic live appearances and a highly impressive first release has got this lot some serious attention in a big way. Building patient and mature pieces around extremely current, dreamy female vocals with a knack for a hook, intelligent and distinctly British lyrics and an evident penchant for noise which is kept admirably restrained, their swelling reputation as a live act seems a cert to translate to further releases.” - Crack Magazine
“Fantastic. Dreamy guitar lines, machine-gunning drums … hints of bands like Life Without Buildings.” - Jon Hillcock - New Noise
“There’s a calm across the surface of Empty Pools. A lilting sound suggestive of dreams to softly remember, Leah Pritchard’s smooth and articulate delivery recalling Kim Gordon in its easy, offhand self-assurance. And then the twinkling guitar pulls a flick-knife and cuts a couple of chords to shreds; the wonderful, happily burbling bass takes up a line of urgent concern. Presently, calm is restored, but for how long? Thus, a sound with a fabulous, compelling tension at its heart, a coolness and musical interplay suggesting The Liftmen moved from rural pond-side idyll into chic Manhattan tower block.” - Venue Magazine
“There’s a calm across the surface of Empty Pools. A lilting sound suggestive of dreams to softly remember, Leah Pritchard’s smooth and articulate delivery recalling Kim Gordon in its easy, offhand self-assurance. And then the twinkling guitar pulls a flick-knife and cuts a couple of chords to shreds; the wonderful, happily burbling bass takes up a line of urgent concern. Presently, calm is restored, but for how long? Thus, a sound with a fabulous, compelling tension at its heart, a coolness and musical interplay suggesting The Liftmen moved from rural pond-side idyll into chic Manhattan tower block.” - Venue Magazine
“I wish I could play guitar like these guys … with all the fascinating tangents they go off on; the post-punk stabs to the intelligent strums and oddly-constructed patterns. Bristol’s Empty Pools make raw, fidgety, experimental rock, the kind which both enthralls and encourages the listener to throw hard objects at the wall.” - Music Fan's Mic
“Jittering guitars and soft percussion rattle below plaintive vocal moans in Empty Pools’ debut effort ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ and we can’t wait to see what the Bristol four-piece have to offer.” - The Line of Best Fit
“Channeling the nonchalant drawl of The Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger, front-woman Leah Pritchard mixes her vocal with instrumentation last seen bowling down the Severn hot on the heels of one-time collective You & The Atom Bomb. It’s a welcome return, and with any luck Empty Pools will pioneer the scene back to its rightful position as cream of the crop.” - Drunken Werewolf
“Refined art-rock … bursting at the seams with enthusiasm and sweaty abandon.” - Gold Flake Paint
“Refined art-rock … bursting at the seams with enthusiasm and sweaty abandon.” - Gold Flake Paint
“…elements of Vanderbilt Cup may be equated to the forces of nature and such like: its spindly, finger-y guitars recall withered wintry branches outstretched into cold, dark nights; its release is bolstered by sturdy bass root notes; and Pritchard’s vocals evoke those of Carrie Brownstein at their most spring and sprightly. Thus if lyrically concerning the pitfalls of contradiction around which the privileged creative may tiptoe, musically it morphs and evolves cyclically, a little like seasonal change therefore. And indeed were the moniker a nod to Williamsburg’s Pool Parties of yore and the Brooklyn phenomenon were ever refilled with life anew, you’d certainly hope for Empty Pools to be poured into the ruckus…” - Dots & Dashes
“The track’s fissiparous melody evolves constantly without ever sounding confused, switching between breezy, jangly guitars in the verses and prog-influenced riffs in the chorus, building towards its climax with a playful yet forceful insistence.
Lyrically the track is equally intriguing, the tone both inclusively intimate and beguilingly abstract, like a diary entry written in a code of pop culture references – an enigma fortified by Leah Pritchard’s conversational and assured vocals.” - Wears the Trousers
“The track’s fissiparous melody evolves constantly without ever sounding confused, switching between breezy, jangly guitars in the verses and prog-influenced riffs in the chorus, building towards its climax with a playful yet forceful insistence.
Lyrically the track is equally intriguing, the tone both inclusively intimate and beguilingly abstract, like a diary entry written in a code of pop culture references – an enigma fortified by Leah Pritchard’s conversational and assured vocals.” - Wears the Trousers
“As a commenter on SoundCloud astutely notes, there is some very “creative drumming” in ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ – but the creativity doesn’t end with the percussion. There’s a load of imaginative and melodic guitar work too, which guides the track gently from modern spiky, angular pop-punk to fuzzy alt-rock (think Pixes meets Pavement).” - Tom Robinson (BBC 6) - Fresh on the Net
“As a commenter on SoundCloud astutely notes, there is some very “creative drumming” in ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ – but the creativity doesn’t end with the percussion. There’s a load of imaginative and melodic guitar work too, which guides the track gently from modern spiky, angular pop-punk to fuzzy alt-rock (think Pixes meets Pavement).” - Tom Robinson (BBC 6) - Fresh on the Net
“…heavily influenced by the Sub Pop and Thrill Jockey schools of indie rock, but for a new band they have a remarkably fully-formed sound, characterized by some confident, nicely-scruffy guitar work and interesting song arrangements.” - Drowned in Sound
“[A] sublime first song... The beautifully, breezy-to-brutal guitar work underpins piqued lyrics about the tug o'war between privilege and moral value.”
- NME
Discography
March 2012: 'Vanderbilt Cup'
Free self-released track
June 2012: 'Exploded View'
Free self-released track
July 2012: 'Vanderbilt Cup' and 'Exploded View'
Re-released by Enclaves - all digital platforms worldwide
October 1 2012: 'Safety School'/'Absentees'
Released by BATTLE - double A-side 7" single & digital download
- Digital/publishing handled by Frenchkiss Label Group
- AUS/NZ distribution by Fuse
- UK/EU/exports by Proper
March 11 2013: 'Small Talk'
Released by BATTLE - 7" vinyl/digital single
- Digital/publishing handled by Frenchkiss Label Group
- AUS/NZ distribution by Fuse
- UK/EU/exports by Proper
August 9 2013: 'Exploded View'
First single from debut album premiered on SPIN
August 26 2013: 'Exploded View'
Released by BATTLE - digital single
Backed by remixes from Menomena and Thought Forms
November 4 2013: 'Saturn Reruns'
Album released by BATTLE on special edition CD and digital
Photos
Bio
According to a certain strain of astrology, the most important transitions in your life aren’t the ones marked by birthday, retirement, or condolence cards. The Saturn Return marks the 29 years it takes for the ringed planet to orbit the sun, and every time it realigns with the point it occupied at your birth, you move between four defining life phases: from youth to adulthood, to maturity, to wisdom.
Bristol's Empty Pools made quite a seismic splash early on in 2012 with the self-release of their immaculately conceived, if ultimately scratchily composed single, ‘Vanderbilt Cup’. The track proved as sonically rich as it was contextually textured; citing everything from Mercury Rev's ‘The Dark Is Rising’ to Dylan's ‘Gates of Eden’, it thematically told of NYC photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's obscure rapport with a certain Patti Smith during the late '60s and early '70s. ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ offered a magisterial listen overflowing with ingenuity, and a superbly rerecorded version comprising subtle brass – one of umpteen "new parts, sounds and structural ideas" - and considerably more zippy timbres features early on in the quartet's long-awaited and indeed painstakingly named debut full-length 'Saturn Reruns'.
From the aptly volatile ‘Exploded View’ – a fraying short fuse of a thing lit by incendiary rhythmic elements, claustrophobic existentialism inspired by "the fall" (a revolt against one’s makers, not the grizzly post-punk Mancunian stalwarts) and 23-year-old vocalist Leah's incisive snarl – to the giddying, The Sea and Cake-inspired nonchalant plushness of ‘Safety School’, it’s an astonishingly competent and so too cohesive work. 'Saturn Reruns' injects a once ailing West Country music scene with boundless hope, epitomised in the glittery joie de vivre of ‘Murals’, or the unreservedly hypnotic ‘Televised’, which sounds like the sisters Deal’s Last Splash bred with that distinctly carefree abandon of the now-voguish '90s into which it was first thrust. That was the decade in which Empty Pools endured their formative years, and consequently the time at which their singer first began to formalise her acutest of attentions to detail.
"I had tried to find a title in ‘Self Portrait at 28’ by David Berman because it's one of my favourite poems" she says of the record's eventual titling, "but there was nothing that really fit with the themes of the album. I remembered a few years ago asking Stephen Malkmus if his ‘Forever 28’ was a reference to that poem. He said no, but that 28 or thereabouts is quite often a "time" for people; a Saturn return. I looked it up when I got home and understood it to be a pretty cool and romantic way to describe sinking into a hellish depression. It made it into a line in ‘Line Drive’ and when I was making a final scan of the lyrics – three beers in – the morphed version sprung out, tying together the poem, the grim lyrical themes and the TV references. Each song is a miniature, miserable revelation. What could be more like watching an episode of Frasier? The title also pays homage to our favourite rock'n'roll puns."
She speaks of 'Saturn Reruns' with poise and so too purpose – her thoughts a tidy intertwinement of the hyper-erudite and the happy accident. Ultimately, the name came from "around 50 stupid tweets, a few pub trips and an afternoon drinking beer in Ben's garden. All that time to realise we'd exhausted all our ideas and hadn't actually found anything we all agreed on." Again, it's a neat juxtaposition of the critical and the jovial that mirrors the seriously contemplated influences to have formed the album in the first place (the initial classified ad posted by guitarist Ben and drummer Aaron listed the likes of Pylon, Marnie Stern, Talking Heads, Helium and Karate, attracting kindred spirits in bassist Matt, and Leah) and the at times ingenuous sonic fare it comprises.
Though the ad was printed in the halcyon days of fading summer 2011, Saturn has completed almost half a lap since Ben and Aaron first bonded as members of John Parish’s band at the turn of the millennium. That partnership could have ended when they lost touch five years ago, though fate would have it that both landed in groups that would finish albums or book tours only for half their members to quit. The duo’s reconnection and Empty Pools’ ensuing formation may have been somewhat serendipitous, but the sound is of four lives finely attuned to one another; four discrete, if still highly distinct wavelengths consummately interlaced. Much like Mapplethorpe's celebrated portrait of Patti or indeed Smith's Horses itself – the seminal album said photograph so iconically covers – 'Saturn Reruns' may yet transpire to be their lifework. Or that of this youthful first 29-year lap at any rate...
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