The Dials
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The Dials

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Band Rock Americana

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"Dial M for marvellous"


There have been few records of late full of really cosmic Americana music and fewer still from these shores. Now at last, spaghetti western themes, surf instrumentals, garage, head trips, psychedelia, country, jazz, west coast pop and rock come together to live in perfect harmony. If this record were a person it would wear a Nudie suit. The opening couple of tracks should get them soundtrack work with Tarrantino, but the urge for twanging overkill is soon suppressed with ‘Lonely Boy’ which breaks out pedal steel and harmonies for a shot at country pop nirvana and with the piano notes sending a Morse code love letter to the hardest hearts - they are off to a fantastic start.

The 14 tracks sprawl all over the stew of the last 40 years of music bringing to the surface nuggets of country music that have been seasoned in the cosmic stew and fused with all manner of other ingredients, their absolute control over their craft allowing them to combine strange flavours into a satisfying tasty whole. Skiffle, twang and honky-tonk all happen at once and at some speed on ‘Pontius Pilate at Kmart’ blended together they sound perfectly natural. ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ adds some unlikely soulful Hammond organ and horns to help ludicrously but successfully recreating the soulful Stax/Motown sound that is rescued from cliché with some raw guitar and a freaked out Hammond player held steady by the horns.

Echoes of Love pulse through unsinkable ‘The Coracle’, with ‘Me So Fah’ being the kind of simmering psychedelia that Mercury Rev started out making (think ‘Very Sleepy Rivers’) mixing passing freight train whistles of pedal steel with a stream of xylophone, skittering percussion and some jazz piano, before John Coltrane gatecrashes the party - once the saxophone is ejected everything turns into a gently roiling river of bucolic psychedelic noise. Amongst all of this straining experimentation there exist islands of beauty: ‘Willow Craft Centre’ recovers from the excess with some lovely pedal steel and an almost generic structure.

A sprawling stylistically diverse work that is almost flawlessly executed, this is the type of studio record that the Sadies constantly fail to deliver. An excellent debut.



- Americana UK


"Dutch review"

We gaan het weer beleven met die Britten; de zoveelste in rij die de americana-toer verdomd goed uitvoeren. Al is hier wel heel veel bijzonders aan de hand omdat The Dials op hun gelijknamige debuut (Gear Discs) een hutspot aan americana-stijlen op de prairie-mat leggen. Dat begint al met de heerlijke surf-spaghetti-instrumental, getiteld, hoe kan het ook anders, Theme From Dials. Waarop The Dials je meenemen op een wilde rit door alt.country-country. The Dials komen uit Brighton en bestaan uit vijf mannen in sleetse donkere pakken en met de stropdasknopen op de knieën: Martin Johnson (zang, gitaar, toetsen), Dermot Watson (gitaar, lapsteel, pedal steel, banjo, autoharp), Andy Taylor (Hammond, toetsen, zang, gitaar), Andy Davies (bas) en Andrew ‘Pidge’ Pidgeon (drums). Een mooi stel is het. Een mooi stel dat een geweldige plaat gemaakt heeft. In een eclectische (ik weet het; een vies woord) stijl passeren The Dials alle americana-stations. Spaghetti western, een toefje Tex-Mex, wat traditionele country en een wagonlading spacy countryrock. De invloeden variëren van Johnny Cash tot Beachwood Sparks, van New Riders Of The Purple Sage tot R.E.M. en van Syd Barrett tot The Sadies. Gave koortjes, rammelende drums, Farfisa’s en Hammonds en jengelende pedal steels. Humor, bubblegum, twang en psychedelische alt.country zijn zo’n beetje de basis-ingrediënten van de heerlijke muzikale achtbaansrit van The Dials. In ruim vijftig geweldige minuten komt zoveels moois voorbij dat ik maar volsta met wat weirde songtitels: From Fairying Champion To False Pegasus, Pontius Pilate at K-Mart en de mooiste: Hello, My Name’s Jesus And I’m An Alcoholic. Ik vergeef ze de blasfemie, gewoon omdat ze mij al dagenlang een goed humeur bezorgen. Een mooi stel is het, The Dials. En wat een opwindende plaat! (Wiebren Rijkeboer)
The Dials is via internet gemakkelijk verkrijgbaar, maar ook via www.thedials.co.uk - Altcountry.nl


"Live review"

Fleeing the Bunny Girls of the Apocalypse, we boarded a bus to Hove and took refuge in the unlikely quarters of "The Providence". Weird, spacious venue (presumably a prototype for the dreaded "superpub"); but nonetheless, great for acoustics... Good bar prices too: Jack Daniels + coke £1.55, two-for-one Stella/Reef/WKD - put that in your Spiegeltent and smoke it. An earnest, riff-orientated set by support act The Snips; and we can make out various members of The Dials waiting in the shadows at the far end of the bar, looking like refugees from Doc Holliday's Poker Parlour. Time for a drink, methinks. Rickenbackers are duly tuned up onstage while your erstwhile reviewer takes illicit swigs from a hipflask of Old Gruntfuttocks Winter Warmer, hidden discretely beneath the table. Ladies' eyes flash in the night, deringers are stashed away in embroidered waistcoats. Showtime. The Dials kick off with "Theme from The Dials" (causing an outbreak of instantaneous dancing on a Friday night) and continue their turbocharged c&w thrash throughout the rest of the warm evening. Dermot's pedal steel and Andy T's pastel organ figures floating high above the crowd, the band showcase a series of strong self-penned numbers, such as the reverb-drenched "Being Born", the starry celestial thrust of "Jigsaw Mind", the resolute framework of "Lonely Boy"; slowing down for the old Garnet Mimms tearjerker "As Long As I Have You", and climaxing with a superb kick-ass cover of the timeless Jagger/Richards chestnut: "Dead Flowers". The band weave coherent patterns, balancing a strong overall structure with moments of abandon and genuine exhilaration (I swear I heard a holler, not to mention a whoop, from lead vocalist Martin) and idiosyncratic songs such as "Pontius Pilate at K-Mart" and "Hernando Who Does Not Ride". This all points to their debut album, when it's finally readied for release, being a solid sender of no mean proportions. The crowd here have begun to mellow and everyone appears to be getting loose and having a good time. Which is what we're doing here in the first place. By closing time, The Dials have pulled off the seemingly impossible: turning the monolithic corporate space of "The Providence" into an intimate roadhouse cafe on the dark side of town... Long may they ride. - Americana UK


Discography

The Dials (self titled debut album) - national and international airplay
Where Did Our Love Go? (single) - national and international airplay

Photos

Bio

We won the most recent Fopp/PRS New Music Award which means - according to a team of world leading scientists - we are the best band in the world...or being slightly more modest, some of the big cheeses at Universal Music and NME magazine (to name but a few) think we're pretty good.

Mark Lamarr (host of one of BBC radio's most respected music lovers' shows) has had us live in session after we sent him a demo. He has also gone on air to say that it was his favourite session of the year and has since played tracks from our album embarrassingly frequently. We also feature on veteren broadcaster Bob Harris' 'most played' list. ...and we're quite proud of that.

We've been on many, many more 'big-time' national shows including Stephen Merchant's (The Office/Extras) show.

That being said, we're best known in our hometown of Brighton as being the band that got locked in a bank vault whilst recording our album...ask us about it when you meet us.

"The Dials have recorded two of my favourite recent tracks...I’ll treasure the album for a long, long time" Mark Lamarr, BBC Radio 2

"Really, really good" Dave Henderson, Mojo

“A great band” Bob Harris, BBC Radio

“A twanging country-psych extravaganza. Right on!” The Fly