Still Corners

http://alex-loves.blogspot.com/2008/03/still-corners.html


Assonance is one of my favourite parts of verse, and it rings a sweet melody in my ears when it enters the pop realm. It's part of the reason why I love the EP "Remember Pepper" by London's Still Corners. The other part of the reason is all those pretty, dreamy soundscapes and airy vocals that sound as though they've floated down from the clouds and landed on a bed of Broadcast records. It's spookily pretty, like antique lace - listen to 'Cremona' on their myspace page and you'll understand. Just lovely! You can buy their EP via their myspace page, or through iTunes. - Alex Loves Your Silly Pop Songs

http://amongtheaisles.blogspot.com/2008/04/still-corners.html

I really love the Still Corners' EP 'Remember Pepper', but am at a loss as to how I can describe it. Its most obvious comparison is Broadcast, but I have this idea that it's based around melody rather than rhythm. However, I don't really know if that's true or even what it really means so it's probably best I just leave it at it's warm, lovely and 'I love it'. I'm going to see them on Thursday playing with Phil Wilson and The Pocketbooks, so hopefully I'll have a better idea as to what they're about after seeing them live. I just hope they don't go for extensive backing tracks to try and get the exact soundscapes of the EP.

There is some (what I consider to be) proper snow today - it's pretty fun.

Posted by Chris - Among the Aisles

http://popncherries.skynetblogs.be/post/5701468/still-corners


Still Corners : Remember Pepper ? EP (Self released)

Take some avant-garde music à la United States of America (you know, the guys who wrote "Love song for the Dead Che", later covered by Northern Picture Library), mix it with some obscure psychedelic instrumentations à la The Animated Egg (you know this long-lost project from the late 60's praised by Jarvis Cocker, known in the States as "101 Strings") and you'll get something very close to Broadcast's retro-futurist pop of course !


With this debut EP from London duo Still Corners, these basic elements have been mellowed into a shining 6-gems-ready-to-hear collection ! This unperfect -auto- production, those soundtrack samples, those wisely used experimentations, those easy-going melodies and Olivia's breathy vocals (closer to Birdie's Debsey Wikes - where is she now? - than to Trish Keenan) won't necessitate a devil of a time to convince you !!!

And if you're around London, you won't have any excuse to check out the band live on April 10th at the Gramaphone as opening act for the Pocketbooks and Phil Wilson (ex June Brides) !! Buy your tickets HERE !!

See you there ! J-M



- Pop-n-Cherries

http://ronpowlusrolemodel.blogspot.com/2008/04/still-corners-remember-pepper.html


Still Corners Remember Pepper. Again with being the late arrival with torn jeans. Others have described this as Birdie meets Broadcast. The others are correct. It's almost that good. Why don't Birdie release records any more? Compare the three Birdie records with the Saint Etienne records that have come out in the same time frame. Not even close, Birdie kills them dead. I keep writing about violent pop collisions. I have no idea why. Perhaps, Birdie is tied up in litigation suing that ridiculous band that decided to name their band Biirdie. I just thought of writing an entry on Loveliescrushing's Chorus but it might be extremely difficult, its all human voice, it's lovely, marvelous and all but it would need to be half concerned Andrew Freedman's ridiculous article in the Washington Post today where he says nothing at all and acts as if he has decided matters once and for all or the article decrying the calamity of Polar Bear cannibalism, driven to homicide by Biofuels and air conditioning. Snow in Johannesburg! It's not as technically proficient as Broadcast. The voice is definitely Debsey. More samples and squiggles, snuggles, intimacy. There less dexterity from the drum stool. First song is just magnificent though. I should have mentioned that. Second song has started. Parallels, another unbelievably great song. Where did this band come from? They seem fresh out of someone's womb, Delia Derbyshire? Fifty Foot Hose? Whereas when Je Suis Animal think they are getting down with the psychedelia they turn interminable and dull when this gets swankier and nifty and rather clever, yet always is it engaging. At the moment it's some two finger doodling on a synthesizer but it's charming and brilliant and gorgeous and blah blah blah. Maybe it's because you don't have the stiff necked voice droning on in the background that causes this to appeal to the heart moreso than say the stiff necked Je Suis Animals. Broadcast is the obvious comparison but all the same this seems looser, more amorphous. Broadcast are the greatest pop band in the world because everything they construct is taut, perfectly engineered and marvelously dramatic. But it's all so very precise, there don't seem many accidents that are possible in a Broadcast song, by comparison Still Corners feel like they are slipping away to the vast reaches of the endless void, the crescendo crashes just before the event horizon. Third song, a brief instrumental, more of the Lost In Space gadgetry on display, soft and unfocused, delightful and charming. It is a river, unspooled across the landscape. Have you seen that Barack Obama has secured the all important Darla records endorsement? It's going to be key in Pennsylvania, I am certain. Fourth song now, it's tender, it's folk, I don't think Broadcast have ever been folk, this is sci-fi folk. Of course if that term gains acceptance I have doomed them to a lifetime of Dave Fridmann production and they'll end up sounding like Grandaddy just like every other band that he has produced has ended up sounding like Grandaddy. Emma Pollock has even grown a beard in order to conform. Which of Obama's positions did secure the Darla position? I am not sure. Has he elucidated anything yet? He's aware of the price of Arugula at the Whole Foods, he's in touch with the common man. How many more cycles of having a choice between tweedle dee and tweedle dum will we need to endure before we have a rethink as to whether we really should be entrusting all of this power to these folks. Who knows. Fifth song now, sci-fi twilight time, not a whole lot of variety here but man who needs it. I can eat the same dinner every day, I ain't picky. This is a fantastic song. The ghostly vocals, double tracked, a one note keyboard line, a second one note keyboard line and more loudly hushed vocals. It's enervating. Is that a good thing? Sure, it eases your soul into a restless stasis when you are listening and you resist the inertia attempting to flail about but your appendages fall limply to your side. Enveloped in this haze of delicious swirls everything is bathed in light and then come dreams of people you once knew playing keyboards on stage for Wilco on a really dreadful song on a dreadful episode of Saturday Night Live. I saw Jens, not Lekman, Mikael Jorgensen, on stage, with Wilco. He wasn't wearing a Movere Workshop tee shirt. He looked like he was enjoying himself far too much for the sort of lame Don Henley wannabe jam he was playing. But congratulations be put upon him and perhaps soon he'll start dating one of the Watson Twins. Sci-fi freakout, it might be guitar or some squirrely effects gizmo that they left on when they went to go get fish tacos. It's a bit like the first Broadcast album, the compilation, flashes of memories come and remind of moments like Phantom or We've Got Time. It's clearly much stronger than the Misty Dixon. This hass got a softly sinsister tint to it, the last song, like a Pram instrumental, Still Corner instrumentals seem so incomprehensible when you have got a voice like that in the mix. Ah now she's birthed in the mix, a bit Laetitia Stereolab in the deadpan moan but now back to a less hierarchical Trish Keenan, soft crescendos ebb. More whirls and washes, it's a vague chasm in the continuum drawing in all of the darkness until all that is left is the white noise. So terrifically marvelous. Go home, don't pray for Pope Benedict to be allowed to run the bases at Yankee stadium, instead pray that there are dozens more songs like this in their quiver and that they let fly soon. Definitely much cooler than cool. - Ron Powlus Role Model

http://eardrumsmusic.com/2008/04/08/still-corners-dreamy-indie-from-the-uk/

This is one of my new favourite bands!
Some weeks ago, a UK band called Still Corners sent me an email, and some days later I had their ep in my hands. The EP is their debut release, and has the wonderful name “Remember Pepper?” (available on iTunes or via their myspace (link above)).

Their sound has a retro-feel to it, - some 60s and 70s psychedelia mixed with 80s dreamy indie-pop and everything is blended together into a unique and beautiful sound. When I hear Still Corners’ music, I’m reminded of 4AD-bands from the 80s and 90s, like Lush, Pale Saints, A.R.Kane or Cocteau Twins. Maybe I hear a bit of early Stereolab in there too?

Still Corners has the same dreamy, soothing feeling, and their sound has elements that you can find in the music of all the mentioned artists. Reverbed drums, drone guitars, swirling organs, a distinct bass-sound and dreamy vocals slightly in the background of the mix.

Their sound is huge, almost like a wall of sound, with lots of reverb. Stunningly beautiful music, all the way. It is easy to let your mind drift when you listen to their songs, and I’m already waiting in anticipation for the next release from Still Corners!
- Eardrums!