sharks took the rest

"Panoramic Pop" - The Guardian

Review: Sharks Took the Rest, Live Theatre, Newcastle.

Sep 7 2009 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal
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UNUSUALLY for me, I didn’t make any notes at this gig. The reasons for this were two fold.

I left my trusty review moleskin and associated biro on the back of a toilet cistern in a Quayside bar where we enjoyed a pre-gig tipple on Saturday night. Still, it’s not like I’ve never done that before… my so-fancy-I-don’t-understand-it phone has served as a suitable substitute in the past.

But it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d had an on-site secretary by my side at Live Theatre because I was genuinely transfixed throughout Sharks Took The Rest’s debut headlining gig.

Since hearing them play for the first time in public at The Journal Culture Awards back in March (figurative pat on the back for us here) I’ve been gagging to hear more from the seven-piece outfit, led by Beccy Owen. So much so, in fact, that by the time I sat down on the Live balcony, I was worried I’d built the Newcastle-bred band up a tad too much.

Apparently not. From the opening Too Late For Logic through the memorable Go For Blood and Abstinence and all the way to the beautiful encore Isobel, there was a widespread feeling we were witnessing the start of something special.

Beccy’s voice has always been a pure delight, but there’s something about this ensemble which offers more than she – and her oh-so-talented bandmates – have offered before. They are definitely more than the sum of its Sharks. I predict things will go swimmingly from here on in.

As we left the building, I heard someone describe the Sharks experience as "sublime bliss". I’m not even going to try to better it.
- The Journal

New bands are a weird one to judge – I listen to so many new band that Ive fallen in love with some records this year that had seen their creators split up and disappear before the CD had even made it to my player, but even so – there is nothing as exciting (for me personally anyway) as that initial spark of excitement to be had as a new band crops up in your life that blows you out of the door and halfway back round the block.

When it comes to some of these awards some were logical choices, some were based on a gut feel but for the Hippy Award for Best New Band I relied solely on one particular statistic; See my ipod is rammed to the rafters with all kinds of stuff – at last count some 8000 songs were on there vying for attention but strangely enough one act has just one song on there and yet somehow this one track ends 2009 and as the most played couple of minutes on there.

I was introduced to Sharks Took The Rest earlier this year by way of a demo of their track Isobel sent to me by a friend and ever since, these four minutes of gently undulating piano led folk-tronica has been a near constant – in the car, on the pod, round the house – even Mrs Hipster who isn’t a massive fan finds herself singing it such is the near ubiquity of the track in Chez Hip’.

Quite what it is I don’t know – the way the aching piano wraps itself around an angelic vocal line to flesh out the glitchy bed of electronica it almost sounds as if the song is writing itself as it goes along, making its way out of the cocoon and arriving in the world barely able to stand but yet utterly beautiful . A perfect document of a work in progress, Isobels gently unfolding lines threw me headlong into one hell of a love affair.

In November I finally got round to seeing the guys live and was genuinely taken aback by the weight of what ensued – a massive 8 piece band throwing strings and gentle washes of electric guitar into the mix, was just heavenly – wrapping the nucleus of the songs in ornate layers of counter melodies and hushed backing vocals and gently draping them across the room to devastating effect.

If there is even a shred of justice in the world in 2010, we will all know a lot more about Sharks, this time next year – for now, catch up with what you’ve been missing…

The Hippy Award 2009 for best new band then goes to: Sharks Took The Rest! - Old Age Hipster Blog

Coming on like a cross between Joanna Newsom fronting an unplugged Cocteau Twins, the band have just two songs on their myspace right now but both are worthy of your immediate attention.

We are in love with the track "Isobel" and it has been on constant rotation, the gossamer whisper and sighing piano drag us in every time.

At present completely unsigned (although surely not for long) these guys could be your new favourite band within five minutes - National Student Magazine