London/Paris/Brighton-based collective ARCHIVE return with the epic and beautiful album With Us Until You’re Dead.
Produced by longtime collaborator Jerome Devoise, the album will be released on the band’s own Dangervisit Records via Cooperative Music on 27th August 2012.
Part-orchestral, part-electronic, part-soulful, part-progressive and wholly emotion-soaked and cinematic, the album touches tangents with Massive Attack, Radiohead, UNKLE, Secret Machines and Pink Floyd, with four dynamic singers fronting a restlessly inventive landscape constructed by Archive’s long-standing core of Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths.
Archive’s dark and dramatic 1996 debut Londinium was a recognised trip-hop classic. Since then the band has grown steadily to the point where they now sell out arenas and headline festivals throughout Europe (including last year’s Rock En Seine festival in Paris).
Talking about the new album Keeler said “As a collective we’ve always written songs that focused on social and political issues but for this album I really wanted the songs to be more personal - love songs basically. But coming at the subject matter in that non-formatted Archive way.”
“I grew up a massive Otis Redding fan and I wanted to bring some of that soulfulness to the songs, but at the same time to make them twisted and experimental.”
First taster from the album comes in the form of the ‘Wiped Out / Violently EP’ released on July 2nd. Featuring remixes from the likes of Man Without Country, Sei A and Rosko John, the EP will be released on 12” and download formats.
‘Violently’ (“one of the darkest and most powerful songs we’ve ever done” Keeler reckons) features new vocalist Holly Martin and comes with a suitably dark promo video directed by legendary graphic designer Brian Cannon who created album covers for Oasis and The Verve.
BIO 2012
Absent from this side of the Channel for far too long, London and Brighton-based music collective Archive return with the epic and beautiful With Us Until You’re Dead.
Part-orchestral, part-electronic, part-soulful, part-progressive and wholly emotion-soaked and cinematic, the album touches tangents with Massive Attack, Radiohead, The Aloof, Secret Machines, UNKLE and Pink Floyd, with four dynamic and diverse singers fronting a restlessly inventive landscape constructed by Archive’s long-standing core of Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths.
The six-minute intro ‘Wiped Out’ is all you need to grasp the collective’s widescreen vision. The mood is soulful and seismic, the voice and beats rivalling each other for impact. The album unfolds in phases; next up, ‘Interlace’ and ‘Stick Me In My Heart’ are a dreamier bridge to the breakbeat fury of ‘Conflict’ and ‘Violently’; the exquisite orch-ambient interlude ‘Calm’ precedes the torch-song soul of ‘Silent’ and the raw meltdown of ‘Twisting’. The slow-burning ‘Things Going Down’ leads into the pulsating dynamo of ‘Hatchet’ and ‘Damage’ before a final, serene high in ‘Rise’.
And to think Archive’s legacy is as a mere trip-hop act. Well, their suitably dark and dramatic 1996 debut Londinium was a recognised trip-hop classic, but the lack of a similarly great follow-up cemented that impression, with second album, 1999’s Take My Head delayed and compromised by line-up changes and virtually disowned by its creators on release.
Third album You All Look The Same To Me (2002) put Archive back on track with a shift toward a broader musical mindset, while 2004’s Noise made them superstars across Europe when Warner France signed them. Their sound and vision expanded over 2006’s Lights and 2009’s conceptual pair Controlling Crowds I-III and Controlling Crowds: Part IV. But while Archive would routinely sell out venues such as Paris’ Zenith Arena (tantamount to selling out Alexandra Palace here), contractual problems meant none of these albums got a UK release. Archive remained a hidden treasure in their own backyard.
Until now. With a new record deal, With Us Until You’re Dead has a UK release and the band couldn’t be happier. “It’s great to be a big band all over Europe and we don’t take it for granted, but we’re a UK act, and we want to be successful here too,” says Keeler. The album shows Archive are still evolving: singers and co-writers Pollard Berrier, Maria Q, Dave Pen joined by debutante Holly Martin (that’s her on ‘Violently’, “one of the darkest and most powerful songs we’ve ever done,” Keeler reckons), delivering what he regards as more personal lyrics this time around, and less typically socio-political. “They’re love songs, basically,“ Keeler elaborates. “But coming at the subject matter in that non-formatted Archive way. I grew up a massive Otis Redding fan and I wanted to bring some of that soulfulness to the songs, but at the same time to make them twisted and experimental.”
Live dates will follow. On record and stage, then, a bunch of soulful, twisted, experimental songs to stay with you until you die. Let Archive’s new legacy begin…
