-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Working For A Nuclear Free City
ALBUM...: What Do People Do All Day?
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Indietronica, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
YEAR....: 2015
LABEL...: Melodic
COUNTRY.: United Kingdom
FORMED..: 1999, Manchester, Greater Manchester
ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0
BITRATE.: 260 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 14
SIZE....: 85.26 MB
URL..: https://workingforanuclearfreecity.bandcamp.com/album/what-do-people-do-all-day
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/working-for-a-nuclear-free-city/what-do-people-do-all-day
https://musiccritic.com/working-for-a-nuclear-free-city/what-do-people-do-all-do-all-day
https://drownedinsound.com/releases/19242/reviews/4149771
- TRACKLIST
1 Bottlerocket 4:19
2 Ordinary People 3:33
3 Run 3:49
4 Euphone 1:47
5 Stop Everything 2:46
6 Cassetteboy's Theme 1:36
7 Going Nowhere 2:15
8 New Day 3:07
9 Good As Gold 2:20
10 Lindow 95 3:06
11 Turned Too Tight 4:23
12 Blunderland 4:19
13 What Do People Do All Day? 3:26
14 Leaving 4:14
Total Playtime: 45:00
The Beta Band were brilliant. They existed in their own electronic
netherworld and when they split, Steve Mason forged a solo path that
continues today.
Now on their fifth album, Manchester outfit Working For A Nuclear Free City
(try fitting that on the front of a T-shirt) have picked up the frazzled,
lo-fi Beck-ish baton, and while they're not running, they're definitely
swaying. Opener 'Bottlerocket' sounds like Mani at his best is powering the
bassline and the trippy 'Ordinary People', like the Betas before, is as weird
as it's wonderful. Meanwhile 'Run' channels The Beach Boys' harmonies and
sends them to Salford.
All in all, an impressive album
*
"Like early Roses or Screamadelica-era Primal Scream, WFANFC purvey a druggy
amalgam of rave, rock, and pop, generous with block-rockin' breakbeats,
full-body bass grooves, and crystalline dream-pop comedowns. Pitchfork
Working for a Nuclear Free City have never been too concerned with genre.
Since their debut release almost a decade ago they have danced around the
constraints of genre, eschewing predictability and expectation in the process
by creating a body of work dictated by invention and momentum. Their latest
release is no exception although, like much of their previous work, whilst it
is difficult to pinpoint it is not lacking in stylistic coherence, When
putting the record together I was trying make something cohesive in some
way. Says one of the group s founding members, Phil Kay. The end result is
an expansive, pop-tinged, experimental album that can be as propulsive as it
can be restrained, bringing to mind artists as diverse and brilliant as Brian
Eno to Beck.
The situations and inspiration around the record have been rather hodgepodge,
I listen to the radio most of the time, stations that play pretty diverse
things, or I put things on shuffle a lot - mainly just trying to take the
decision making process out of what I choose to listen too Kay says, whilst
also stating that the environments in which the record were created were just
as all over the place, I move around a lot so all the tracks are from
different areas. Some from back in Manchester, a few from here in London, a
couple I recorded in LA up in the Hollywood hills in Jennifer Anniston s old
apartment. This geographically vast record was also done over a period of
time too, making it a continent-spanning record that has had years worth of
thoughts and ideas funnelled into it, It was recorded over such a long
period of time that each track has its own distinct memories for me. Kay
says of the process.
The title of the album What Do People Do All Day? Has a dual meaning, as Kay
points out, I was writing a kids book at the time so had loads of Richard
Scarry books lying around. I think we hit on the title as it of course
reminds you of Scarry and puts you in that playful territory but the second
meaning of it is about the mundanity and futility of life, so there's that
juxtaposition. It was supposed to be this loose concept album about peoples
lives or various snapshots of people lives. The songs also all seem to relate
to these imagined characters and their lives - perhaps a days in their
lives.
As a result the songs vary enormously and when discussing what some of the
individual tracks are about, Kay paints a picture of a little universe of
strange tales and stories, one song is about Media and politics and bullshit
and living in a city and everyone wired up and concrete and adverts and too
much noise whilst others are about: A girl who dreams of killing her boss,
quitting her mundane job and living in a magazine ; The heir to Blackpool
Pleasure Beach who turns it into a Vegas-style resort, makes millions, moves
to Venice beach and turns it into Blackpool and Teenagers getting stoned in
a park in suburbia and discovering a secret portal . As illustrated by these
unique and vast narrative situations, it s an album with huge scope and one
that has set out to be as lyrically ambitious as it is sonically.
*
Five years ago, Working For A Nuclear Free City released Jojo Burger Tempest,
an epic kaleidoscope of psychedelic drum loops, found sound samples and
groove -burrowing basslines.
What Do People Do All Day? Initially gives the impression that little has
changed; Bottlerocket starts with snippets of television channel chatter,
before funky bass struts into your skull, metallic guitars rattle a rhythm
over household percussion and a softly-spoken Beta Band-esque sing-rap calls
out streams of non-sequiturs before calling us all to "stick together".
Elsewhere, songs build on tumbling drums that could have been cribbed from
Caribou's back catalogue while ambient passages give some space and relief.
This time there are also stretches out to American slacker rock (Stop
Everything, Going Nowhere), hushed bedroom lullabies (Cassetteboy's Theme,
the title track), finger-picked pastoral folk (Lindow 95), stomping indie
rock (Turned Too Tight, Blunderland) and Ordinary People, a chillout dub that
Panda Bear or Jamie xx could have produced; guitars shimmering in delay,
ambience and rhythms layered on and then stripped back.
It certainly sounds like an album collaged over five years in various places
around the world. But there are no contemporaries for this sound, and they
hit their mark often, that moment where all the dried pasta shapes, buttons
and string turn into a surprisingly lucid portrait of a band happy to try
everything at once.
*
Manchester based Working for a Nuclear Free City return from a five year
silence with What Do People Do All Day, a fourteen track barrage of
experimental indie pop tracks and nu-gaze musings that more often than not
sound like watered down yet mature versions of 1975 tracks. Although the
vocal heavy offerings fail to pique my interest, there are some redeeming
instrumental offerings on this LP that more than make up for its
shortcomings.
Throughout this album the production, in the hands of founding member Phil
Kay, is interesting although at times clich . Now and then this can make the
songs sound overly filtered in order to fit the mildly experimental twist
unnecessarily heaped onto otherwise straightforward alt-pop songs. Songs like
opener Bottle Rocket and Going Nowhere rely heavily on shoe-gaze style
'washing' of the sound to set them apart from their conventional nature,
adding a manufactured element to the sound that seems superficial at points.
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Cassetteboys Theme, New Day and Leaving are the highlights of the album.
These three instrumental tracks contain the albums most original and
self-contained production. Cassetteboys Theme, is a simple reverby song, with
a subtle minimalist sound. New Day features rolling synth elements over an
old-school hip hop beat, however the artificial tone of the drums adds an
interesting edge to the track as the layers converge to form a welcome break
from the rest of the albums faux dream-pop stylings.
Album closer Leaving is another example of the bands instrumental prowess.
The earthy, booming bass intro sets the track up for a welcome downbeat and
dark tonal shift, however as this subsides ethereal and light synth builds to
create a swelling and light orchestral piece, moving the bands shoegaze style
into cleaner, more polished territory. The track culminates in gritty,
synthesised warp sound effects, before looping out to finish the album. The
delicate chaos of the song creates a perfect closing track for an album that
doesn't quite know what it wants to sound like.
Certain elements such as the influence of various styles of instrumental
music on certain tracks, particularly ambient and noise on Leaving and the
fact that every song on the album sounds different is also appealing. All in,
this album is a solid offering from Working for a Nuclear Free City.
*
"Working for a Nuclear Free City have never been too concerned with genre.
Since their debut release almost a decade ago they have danced around the
constraints of genre, eschewing predictability and expectation in the process
by creating a body of work dictated by invention and momentum.
Their latest release is no exception although, like much of their previous
work, whilst it is difficult to pinpoint it is not lacking in stylistic
coherence, "When putting the record together I was trying make something
cohesive in some way." Says one of the group's founding members, Phil Kay.
The end result is an expansive, pop-tinged, experimental album that can be as
propulsive as it can be restrained, bringing to mind artists as diverse and
brilliant as Beck and Brian Eno to the Super Furry Animals. The situations
and inspiration around the record have been rather hodgepodge, "I listen to
the radio most of the time, stations that play pretty diverse things, or I
put things on shuffle a lot - mainly just trying to take the decision making
process out of what I choose to listen too" Kay says, whilst also stating
that the environments in which the record were created were just as all over
the place, "I move around a lot so all the tracks are from different areas.
Some from back in Manchester, a few from here in London, a couple I recorded
in LA up in the Hollywood hills in Jennifer Anniston's old apartment." This
geographically vast record was also done over a period of time too, making it
a continent-spanning record that has had years' worth of thoughts and ideas
funnelled into it, "It was recorded over such a long period of time that each
track has its own distinct memories for me." Kay says of the process.
The title of the album What Do People Do All Day? Has a dual meaning, as Kay
points out, "I was writing a kids book at the time so had loads of Richard
Scarry books lying around. I think we hit on the title as it of course
reminds you of Scarry and puts you in that playful territory but the second
meaning of it is about the mundanity and futility of life, so there's that
juxtaposition. It was supposed to be this loose concept album about peoples
lives or various snapshots of people lives. The songs also all seem to relate
to these imagined characters and their lives - perhaps a days in their lives"
As a result the songs vary enormously and when discussing what some of the
individual tracks are about, Kay paints a picture of a little universe of
strange tales and stories, one song is about "Media and politics and bullshit
and living in a city and everyone wired up and concrete and adverts and too
much noise" whilst others are about: "A girl who dreams of killing her boss,
quitting her mundane job and living in a magazine"; "The heir to Blackpool
Pleasure Beach who turns it into a Vegas-style resort, makes millions, moves
to Venice beach and turns it into Blackpool" and "Teenagers getting stoned in
a park in suburbia and discovering a secret portal". As illustrated by these
unique and vast narrative situations, it's an album with huge scope and one
that has set out to be as lyrically ambitious as it is sonically."
*
Uncut 80/100 - The musical richness and genre-blending confidence adds up to
a quietly great album. [Mar 2016, p.82]
*
About Working For A Nuclear Free City:
Epic, intelligent, melodic, atmospheric - this is the sound of Working For A
Nuclear Free City.
Descendents of Berlin-trilogy era Bowie and informed by David Axelrod,
Working For A Nuclear Free City represent the best of Manchester's
experimental underground.
The band's origins are in Cheshire, with brothers Phil and Jon Kay and
schoolfriend Gary McLure. Beginning as a studio project, they made
instrumental soundscapes until the addition of Ed Hulme, who joined two days
before the band's first gig. "We have always intended to have vocals on the
tracks, but there just wasn't anyone to do it," says Phil. "I knew Ed could
sing so we started recording his vocals on the tracks and at the same time
got more confident with my own voice. I still think instrumental tracks are
important though. Sometimes it just doesn't need words."
Taking their name from a sign they saw in Manchester. "We are not tree
hugging hippies," says Gary. "We liked the name because of the irony and the
related conspiracy theories of secret bunkers hidden around Manchester. The
signs have now changed to City of Peace, presumably so that the council can't
be done for false advertising."
Establishing themselves on the live scene, Working For A Nuclear Free City
emerged as one of the city's most exciting and mysterious bands. They also
became known for their remixes, with credits for The Rakes, Polytechnic,
Shitdisco, Archie Bronson Outfit, The Whip and Starsailor among others.
-=- SHGZ -=-
-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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