September 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Woodbine, readying new LP, get US release for first album 19 September 2002
Whether it’s the sparseness of their music like swirling fog in which you can see anything that’s buried in your mind, or whether it’s their unrelenting imagination leaving you suspended, twirling above the ground waving your arms around to find some handhold of familiarity, critics, in trying to offer points of reference, have likened Birmingham, England’s Woodbine to a whimsically unlikely assortment of artists. Only the heart-stopping genius (my considered take, not label hype) of a unique record like Woodbine’s self-titled debut could possibly act as a vortex to juxtapose so many disparate fonts of creativity. A quick browse through old music mags and on the Web found Woodbine likened to Mazzy Star, Low, Young Marble Giants, Opal, Spiritualized, Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Fela Kuti, Public Image Limited, The Shop Assistants, Lois, DJ Shadow, Portishead, and Mogwai. The band came together in 1995 in Birmingham: guitarist/keyboards player Robert Healey (on the left in the image), a founding member of Cornershop and bassist for punkers The Membranes; guitarist/percussionist Graeme Swindon, who, with Healey, formed Woodbine after the end of their previous band, Manpower; and ethereal vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Susan Dillane. London’s Domino records signed them immediately in ’95 but had to wait three years until the trio delivered any product, and four for their first album. Woodbine evolved their starkly quiet sound playing live (“It’s a hard thing to do live,” Dillane told The Telegraph in 1998, “because we are so quiet that we can hear what people in the crowd are saying. You can’t tell people to shut up because it might look like stage rage.”) and in their flat (toning things down and down so as not to disturb their neighbors), then took their time recording the tracks for their debut along with engineer/Cornershop collaborator Alan Gregson. They shipped the tapes off to the production/mixing team of Adam and Eve (aka Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty of label mates Royal Trux, based in Chicago)—who they never met during the process, by mutual agreement. All concerned, not least among them, Domino, were very pleased with the results, although Herrema and Hagerty went so far with their free rein as to cut out a verse from one of the songs (Neskwik)—in the process changing its original story line to reference a different drug. Domino released the album in October 1999 for the UK to wide acclaim. Every song on this LP glitters with alien loveliness, and each breaks new tonal ground. The opener, Mound Of Venus (dripping with chilled, dreamy romanticism), and the second, Neskwik (which bounces along quirkily, referring to some speed the band bought that was cut with strawberry-flavored Nesquick powder, ’cause the guy had run out of glucose), are the most coherent songs on the album, and the most radio-ready if anything on this set is. Well, Neskwik won’t make the airwaves with its laconic, opiated line “We like the highs, we like the lows, they don’t like us, fuck what they know.” The music here is chaotic but beautiful, like a stormy sky; iconoclastic while familiar, using textures you know in settings they’ve never had, along with a catalog of new sounds that will inspire other bands for years; but most of all the music here is heavenly, impeccable, and breathtaking. On Been Where You Are, a somnambulistic duet between Dillane and Swindon, a wood block adds just a touch of percussion to the guitar & vocals, but goes totally random by song’s end. Tony Portrait Of A Serial Graffiti Artist pays musical tribute to label-mates Quickspace, with slow, layered guitars and gently harmonized singing. On Complete Control, Woodbine outdo Glasgow’s Adventures In Stereo at their own game, with a gorgeous melody worthy of Jim Beattie plus angelic, wet vocals evoking the heartbreakingly-pretty intonations of Judith Boyle. But to this foundation Woodbine add some humor with soft-shoe dancing (or what sounds like it) as percussion, plus some anti-romantic lyrics including “I hate the way you smile/You lie, you lie, you lie/ But most of all I hate complete control/ I hate your fucking soul.” Like a precious few other bands that just don’t give a fuck about the pop status quo and provide wholly original contributions to our music vocabulary, Woodbine are an obscure and strange blessing for anyone who needs rock in their life. Five bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. Woodbine are working (slowly) on their second album, tentatively slated for a 2003 release. They don’t play live much, and will probably never appear in the United States or Canada due to lack of funds and a plenitude of drug convictions. | Domino Records | | CD from Amazon US | | top of page | |
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