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REVIEWS
It doesn't sound like a recipe for musical magic: a bunch of jobbing musicians from Nottingham enlist the help of a local girl singer with a plan to re-create David Axelrod's psyched-out jazzy grooves.
What do I know? Not only does Harmonium have all the charm of such 1960s wig-outs, but it adds a 21st-century dash of mellifluous Zero 7-like funkiness to the mix. Leonore Wheatley's breathy vocals are utterly beguiling and this has everything it needs to be the word-of-mouth hit of the summer.
Simmy Richman - The Independant - 24/05/09 2009
That the debut album by The Soundcarriers shares its title with a 1992 Stereolab single may be no coincidence.
Professed influences include Free Design, whose Chris Dedrick has written sleevenotes for the vinyl edition of Harmonium. Indeed their airy vocals and downbeat jazz-inflected melodies evoke harmony pop in general. Also in the mix are Wendy & Bonnie, The united States Of America and Future Days-era Can. Time will come channels the title track of Small Faces' Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, but The Soundcarriers are more than record collector/rock lab scientists. What they bring to the table is a living, breathing sence of the organic. This music reaches out, enveloping warmly, blanket-like. Drummer Adam Cann's jazzy precision is especially beguiling. Overall Harmonium is lovely. A splendid future awaits.
Kieran Tyler - Mojo Magazine - June 2009
Here's some proof that psych can be validated as new and exciting. Nottingham's The Soundcarriers' debut LP Harmonium (****) starts with the shimmering electric pianos and cinematic landscapes of Ogdens' Nutgone Flake, before moving into male/female vocals borne by The Free Design and nurtured by Stereolab. The drums, keyboards and flutes, all recorded in analogue, sound delightful. To unsuspecting ears this will sound entirely new, even if clever tykes like us lot know that it's not. Harmonium is an epic work that grows with every listen. Exceptional.
Jon 'Mojo' Mills - Record Collector June 2009
Though Nottingham isn't an obvious place for a 60s baroque pop revival, such is The Soundcarriers' attention to detail - split stereo, Joe Meek reverb - you'd be forgiven for entirely revising that opinion. Here, the presence of a harmonium updates some lava lamp pyschedelic freakouts, David Axelrod's jazzy grooves and the feathery female harmonies of The Free Design, whose Chris Dedrick provides sleevenotes for the vinyl. Uncertainty consequently recalls Broadcast, albiet less aloof, while Let It Ride sounds like Portishead if they'd jammed harder on Third
Eden Parke - Uncut Magazine - June 2009
Citing 'Tropicalia, Bollywood, European folk, '50s surf and exotica' as their influences and talking freely of 'psychedelia', Nottingham's Soundcarriers present an album of dense, trippy, hypnotic and downright groovy (in a 1969 exploitation movie love scene kinda way) tunes that update the '60s experimental easy/electronica mash-ups of The United States Of America, Fifty Foot Horse and The Free Design with captivating results.
Flutes, tablas, analogue keyboards and Leslied male/female vocals snake across floral drum/bass grooves that recall Ennio Morricone and Gabor Szabo far more than they do Stereolab, Broadcast and their ilk. The whole thing was done on analogue equipment so the sound should appeal to retro pop and psychedelia snobs too. Hell, they even manage to sound like The Strawberry Alarmdclock covering The Byrds' 'I See You' on 'Caught By The Sun'!
Riveting.
Andy Morten - Shindig! May-June 2009
Nottingham band The Soundcarriers have just breezed onto my stereo like a breath of fresh air in the summer heat, a welcome and vigorous sound that has enlivened me just from one listen. I really didn’t have any expectations either way of them before this, despite them being on the excellent Melodic label, but this really is class.
Harmonium is their debut album but it’s so perfectly formed that it could be seasoned veterans that have produced it, they throw so many instruments into the mix which really does keep you on your toes, yet the album never seems cluttered and each track takes on a life of it’s own.
Sound wise they mix things up brilliantly, twee folk drifts into a sunshine filled pop chorus and then a more psychedelic track looks like it could spiral out of control and is then brought back to order in time, it’s wonderful stuff and is one of those albums I’ll be returning to again and again, particularly over the summer months.
Kev - TheBeatSurrender.co.uk Album Review - June 09
21st Century Psychedelic Classic Released This Week by Nottingham’s Soundcarriers
h boy, there’s something good going down in Nottingham. I am referring to The Soundcarriers who are releasing their first album Harmonium this week via Melodic.
When a friend slaps something on the turntable accompanied by the words “I think you might like this” it can go either way. Rarely indifferent, you are about to think, you’re kidding me, what makes you think I’d give this garbage the time of day. On the other hand, your life may be just about to change.
Vic - PopJunkietv.com - May 2009
I am often very skeptical about modern psychedelic music, usually the term is bounded about as a simple way of meaning old sounding, or just used to try and give an act a cool edge. However when I heard “Harmonium” , the new album by The Soundcarriers, there was no doubt in my mind that this was the real deal.
The music here is lush, I hate that word but it sums the sound up perfectly! It is real British countryside, summer time music. From just listening to it I can imagine being in the middle of a forest with the sun shining through the leaves, and maybe some tripped out hippies dancing around some kind of stone, but don’t let them put you off.
The Soundcarriers are reminiscent of the original psychedelic, folk groups of the late 60’s such as Pentagle and The Free Design. Chris Dedrick from the Free Design wrote the sleeve notes for the album!
Some of my favourite tracks are David Alexrod-esque “Volcano”, “Cannonball”, and “Without Sound Pt II”, part one is excellent but this instrumental version has killer drums on it and is just heavy.
If you are a fan of library music, acid folk, sun-drenched harmonies and jazz, I would highly recommend “Harmonium”, without a doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.
Left Hand side - May 2009
Depuis la disparition de Broadcast la place est restée désespérément vide, malgré d’infructueuses tentatives de mercenaires. La dynastie lancée par The Free Design n’avait plus de rejetons digne d’un intérêt sympathique parmi la pléthore des sorties actuelles. D’ailleurs, The Soundcarriers profite du saint-patronage du groupe le plus catchy des années 60, Chris Dedrick signant les notes de la version vinyle de Harmonium. Les 4 jeunots de Nottingham doivent encore se repaitre de ces compliments, eux qui arborent une touche "so british" : coupes de cheveux savamment arrangées, allure d’endives dans des vêtements trop étriqués pour les 3 garçons et moue boudeuse pour la délicieuse Dorian, dotée d’un timbre doux comme du sucre candy.
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autresdirections - May 2009
If New-Wave/Old-Wavers Nouvelle Vague joined forces with the Avalanches, surely the only result would be both psychedelic and sexy. Or, it could sound like the new album from the Soundcarriers who hail from Nottingham. Yes that’s right Nottingham. Lyrical ease is personified under female angelic harmonies and male devilishly cool vocals, especially in ‘Uncertainty’ where voices slide into loose rhythms in a carefree setting of saxophone and flutes. Despite the Midlands being nowhere near a beach, some of the Soundcarriers tracks like ‘Calling Me Reprise’ simply breathe surf-music, the type from the soundtrack of any 70s surf-flick. Other songs however possess a Booker T ‘Green Onions’ feel that wouldn’t be out of place on a ‘Music to Watch Girls Go By’ compilation. The album acts as a master class of how to mix drums, electronica, organs and anything that makes funk happen, but even though it’s full of Mediterranean confidence it avoids sounding like a generic Fiat advert, making it the best record from the Midlands since sliced baguette.
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Joe Ellison - Shout4music.com - May 2009
Recording on analogue equipment is enjoying something of a comeback these days, what with Liam Watson's ToeRag Studios being the first port of call for artists as diverse as The White Stripes and Madness. Nottingham-based quartet The Soundcarriers might not have travelled down to Watson's London gaff (Harmonium was recorded in their own studio), but in essence their ideals are the same. This is pre-digital era music in spirit and sound, and blooming lovely it is too.
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Nic Oliver - MusicOMH.com - May 2009
Stunning debut from the freethinking Nottingham-based band. A captivating selection of spaced out songs recorded in their own studio using only analogue equipment. The Soundcarriers have developed a beautiful sound – three-part harmonies, vintage guitars, harps, organs, flutes, recorders, stylophones, chimes and more, inspired by the unorthodox techniques of David Axelrod and Phil Spector.
Welson Creep - Shook Magazine - June 2009
I'm down with the sound of Nottingham based quartet The Soundcarriers and their jazz influenced psychedelic pop sound. New Long player 'Harmonium' has a lot going on, from the master class player to the meticulously well thought out production job, this record is clearly a labour of love for the group. 'Harmonium' immediately reminds me of Stereolab and Broadcast, two other groups that pay very close attention to detail when it comes to song craft and production. Soundcarriers come complete with a full arsenal of instruments; lilted guitars, gutsy bass lines, washy and reverberant drums are accompanied by a huge array of additional sounds including flutes, organs, harps, recorders and the occasional stylophone too. Vocal melodies sound like they've been lifted directly from some obscure 60 pop seven inch, sounding immediately familiar and reassuring. Musically the group wander through the best traits of 60's psychedelia, lounge jazz, euro-indie pop and canterbury era folk prog. For me, this is an excellent combination of influences and couple that with an obsession with the unorthodox production techniques of Phil Spector and David Axelrod and you've got one tasty and inventive sounding record. They are definitely influenced directly by certain 60's psych pop groups but i can't put my finger on which, maybe United States of America.....i can't quite work it out but rest assured this is some stylish stuff yo! Very enjoyable.
Nottingham’s The Soundcarriers love of psychedelic grooves and trippy library music adds up to a thrilling debut of retro pop eclecticism. After a somewhat perfunctory ‘Intro’, ‘Time Will Come’ is an easy listening thrill, that situates this rather fine band somewhere between the Shibuya-kei movement of the nineties and Stereolab’s more esoteric moments.
Culturedeluxe.com - Read more
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NEW ALBUM
'Harmonium'
The Soundcarriers debut is available now, on CD, Double LP and Download
For further information and to purchase, please click here
Further information is available here: www.melodic.co.uk