Back in March 2017, having released their latest album ‘Big Balloon‘ a month prior – on top of a commemorative versus-the-fans go karting event to celebrate the fact – Manchester locals Dutch Uncles wowed us at The Dancehouse Theatre off Oxford Road, fitting right in with the old theatre theatrics of the Grade II listed building.
Six years on and the boys from Marple have a new album in their arsenal and recently embarked on a big tour to celebrate its release, with a homecoming sorted for this Saturday just gone. Though their return to Oxford Road didn’t see much of a move, the show literally taking place across the street at the recently opened Canvas – part of the stick-it-on-a-press-release ‘Oxford Road Corridor‘. It was a sold out show too, something we discovered first hand when we joined the big queue up the street to get in.
Making up for lost time, we practically jumped down the stairs and past the merch to get into the gig room, finding neck-vein popping Chip Smitten up front for locals HONK (with plastic goose mascot on stage to bring them luck) in a shirt that said “Little Meatball“, whipping a West Didsbury and Chorlton A.F.C. scarf above his head to get the punters going. A few down the front joined in on the fun, busting out some line-dance style manoeuvres to the swaggering Americana sleaze.
Part punk, part honky-tonk country, the band revved up and smashed through a host of snarling, speed-fuelled country-style numbers, the rapid ‘Rat Party‘ and the woozy ‘Let The Dog See The Rabbit‘ from their debut EP ‘Grand Opening‘ being major highlights. Sounding very much like a cult on the latter, as vocalist Chip hooted and hollered, the rest of the band joined in with bleary-eyed gang chanting on the chorus.
As everything ran out behind the bar, desperation led to grabbing two tins of Budweiser for a tenner (yep) and making a dash past the 6 Music dads – and actual 6 Music DJsStuart Maconie and Marc Riley – to get a spot down the front. Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl‘ blasted out of the speakers as the lights dimmed, cut off halfway through the first verse in favour of the much more appropriate ‘9 to 5‘, vocalist Duncan Wallis singing along as Dutch Uncles made their arrival to a massive ovation.
Wallis must’ve been watching the audience during HONK, as he cut some silky moves on opener ‘True Entertainment‘, the band locked in from note one on the ice-cold bop from their new album of the same name. He ended it down on one knee, panting away in the style of ‘The Simpsons Family Smile-Time Variety Hour‘. The yucks kept coming all night, Wallis later joking about The 1975 stealing their bit, chucking a ‘Stop Making Sense‘ gag into the mix and requesting we don’t mention anyone’s hairlines.
“We’re still in warm-up mode.” The vocalist announced post-‘Oh Yeah‘ and fair enough, from where we were stood the first few songs were a bit DRUM heavy with not much else. It evened out sharpish though, ‘Decided Knowledge‘ really pumping when they all kicked in on the driving home stretch. On ‘Threads‘ (from 2013 release ‘Out of Touch in the Wild‘), guitarist ‘Panto‘ Pete Broadhead whipped out the… Mallet? Beaters? Whatever you hit the keys on a marimba with, as he and Wallis both played the instrument together in hypnotic fashion, the crowd slack jawed at their laser focus. Broadheadwas soon stood up on the speaker for ‘Flexxin‘, those beaters held high as Duncan suggested with a laugh – “I thought Panto Pete was dead…“
A puppet version of vocalist Duncan made an appearance, momentarily gifted to someone in the front row for them to puppeteer during the delightfully wonky ‘Poppin’’. “He’s still wearing one of my bastard shirts…” Said Wallis of his felt companion, later suggesting with a laugh, “…there’s no business like it.” One of a number of songs on the night from latest album ‘True Entertainment‘ (a record we suggested is “the sound of a band having a whole heap of fun“), elsewhere expectations were exceeded on the likes of pop-smash ‘Tropigala (2 to 5)‘ (complete with a scat-off between the crowd and Duncan) and ‘Damascenes‘, bassist Robin Richards cutting a real figure on the bass throughout.
After much screaming in my ear from the bloke behind me, the band made a well received return for a 1-2-3 KO following frantic closer ‘Dressage’ – latest single ‘In Salvia‘, ‘Fester‘ (“Watch out for Pete, I think he’s feeling a bit spicy on this one“) and the anthemic ‘Big Balloon‘. Whilst guitarist Neil Wright and bassist Robin had themselves a proper axe off, Panto Pete vacated the stage with an attempted crowd surf towards the exit, desperately pointing away from the stage before being planted right back where he came from as the crowd struggled to keep him aloft.
Following the uncertainty around the pandemic and whether a return was on the cards, when Dutch Uncles took a big bow at the end of their set, there was minor panic that there was an announcement to follow. But with the art-poppers giving it both barrels to a packed out room on a sold out Saturday night, there’s clearly plenty left in the tank. Hopefully we don’t have to wait another six years to catch them on Oxford Road again.
Like what you see? Why not stick around and check out the other articles and interviews! Don’t forget to follow Birthday Cake For Breakfast on Facebook,Instagram and Twitter!
Greeted by ghoulish Suffragettes Illamasqua’d up to the eyeballs, I could have sprinted up the four flights to nab the ultimate spot in The Albert Hall – top right or left if you must know: there awaits a perfect triangle of personal dance floor, with no one behind you to kick your gin n’ grapefruit down your back and a Beyonce wind fan to keep it real music video style.
The characters of yore; Suffragettes, street oiks, deceased manservants etc were an homage to the 100 years the Albert Hall has stood in the otherwise business-dull district of Manchester and added a theatrical sheen to the venue’s welcome.
Girl Ray were kind enough to start proceedings, with their slo-mo 70’s-pop sound and surly vocals offset by ooh-oohs and aah-aahs. The likes of ‘Stupid Things‘ cringes its way through the lengths the lovelorn will go to, and ‘Trouble‘ shuffle-steps through further self-hatred letters to an agony aunt.
Next up, Boxed In brought the kind of moves to the stage that made me wonder if they’d been taking aerobics from Duncan of Dutch Uncles – the pace of their set certainly upped the ante, and Mark Nicholls’ full body experience of his bass guitar was infectious to watch. From the audience I heard shouts of “Yeah I remember these from BlueDot, fantastic yet again!”
Keeping the festival feeling alive, throughout the evening’s bill we were graced with appearances from Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, patching over stage setup changes with a diversion of attention to wherever the spotlight followed them.
The roving New Orleans style brass band’s tour of the upper levels of Albert’s Hall pre-empted the antics of our much loved Panto Pete, Duncan, Robin and Andy of Dutch Uncles, whose set I was itching to see and for whom the private dance floor we’d garnered came into full use. Luckily I’d come to the People’s Concert 100 year celebration with a bevy of big Duncles fans, and we were delighted to get a shout out from Duncan in respect of our revelry.
The driving beat, lightness of touch when it comes to the keys and vocals and depth of sound from the four piece makes tracks like ‘Flexxin’, ‘Fester’, ‘Oh Yeah’ and newbie ‘Big Balloon‘ irresistible to bounce around to, especially when you have an industrial fan behind you and the ceiling of a grade II listed Wesleyan meeting house stretching up above you. Dutch Uncles were tight as ever, Duncan’s inter-song chat was brilliant and Pete’s crowd surfing tour of the stalls, hilarious.
Field Music were next up, and they kept it lit throughout with euphoric depth and breadth of sound, achieved through all seven of them on stage with near symmetrical set up – book ended with two keys players, and the enigmatic David-Byrne-esque lead vocal of Brewis backed up by those fantastic harmony vocals from the rest of the band. The brilliantly sharp cut percussion section ties songs like ‘The Noisy Days are Over’ together from vaguely narrative verse to anthemic chorus. Tracks like ‘Disappointed’ crashed into the crowd who by now were more than warmed up and enjoying the chance to shake about on a Saturday night.
The anticipation for British Sea Powerwas evident from the uniform of BDP merch being peacocked about by males over 25. I sadly had to make an exit before I could witness the full display, but it was clear that these heads were down for the whole night and eager to keep it moving through Mr Scruff’s set till the breaking of fucking dawn. I had a DC from MD and biked over to a bonfire party, which was also, lit.
Like what you see? Why not stick around and check out the other articles and interviews! Don’t forget to follow Birthday Cake For Breakfast on Facebook,Instagramand Twitter!
It seems only fitting that on the day I was due to interview Manchester’s Dutch Uncles, Storm Doris was in full swing. With hurricane-force winds knocking branches off trees left right and centre and (unusual for Manchester) pissing down rain ready to drop at any minute, the cycle into Chorlton to meet bassist Robin Richards and frontman Duncan Wallis had disaster written all over it. But the quartet have been hazardous themselves as of late, with Duncan recently injuring himself on a beach jaunt on tour, and prior to that their Destruction Derby-esque foray into the world of speedway at Buxton Raceway for the ‘Big Balloon’ video and a fan-friendly go karting event at TeamSport (described by Manchester Evening News as akin to ‘Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank’!)
“It wasn’t as weird as when we sponsored a West Disbury and Chorlton game.” Says Duncan. “It wasn’t as weird as that…”
We meet at local bar Electrik, discussing the events of the weekend just gone – the lads on hot drinks, unfazed by the potential chaos set to occur outside. The very idea of punters being able to race their favourite band in go karts seems absurd, but it follows a number of album launch gimmicks where Dutch Uncles have signed off their latest release in style. From themed burgers to football and ultimately, go karting.
“Had a wider appeal I think.” Adds Robin. “It was mainly our mates who came down to the West Didsbury and Chorlton thing, whereas this was genuine fans who wanted to race.”
The eventual victors to come out of the day’s events were actually Manchester musicians themselves, leading to talk of collaborations and guest spots on upcoming tracks.
“A very interesting networking event.” Says Duncan with a smile. “I was quite pleased with it, actually. I thought we’d done it properly this time. Once you start doing these quirky album events, you can’t stop doing them. People will be like – where’s the odd thing you’re gonna do this time? It’s like – Fuck sake, can we not just put an album out?”
Talk turns to the potential they have for the follow up to fifth album ‘Big Balloon’ and its checkered flag arrival. Robin humorously suggests it could work either way, with the narrative or concept of the album coming before or after the event is chosen.
“That was the great thing about the go karting. It slotted in with the ‘Big Balloon’ video. It made sense.” Adds Duncan. “Whereas when we did sponsor the West Didsbury game, it was just something that we’d taken on, just a passion of ours to have that.”
Fast becoming a hipster hangout, West Didsbury & Chorlton AFC games are often home to the likes of the Dutch Uncles lads and fellow Northerners Luxury Death (Duncan proudly confirms he’s an ‘Ultra’, whilst Robin laments that he’s only part time). For the release of ‘O Shudder’ (2015), the quirky event this time was for the local team to be played out to one of their latest singles. But on the day of the big match, given the lower-league nature of the surroundings, the intended team walk out to ‘Decided Knowledge’ was scuppered by a malfunctioning CD player, leaving the hometown heroes to instead come out to the much more puzzling ‘Given Thing’ – A “Kate Bush piano ballad” as Duncan puts it, with a laugh. “Very intimate song. Too intimate.”
The evening before the Sunday afternoon race, Dutch Uncles treated some of their nearest and dearest (as well as a host of lucky punters) to an Intimate live session at Low Four Studio (read a review of that here!) With it being so local, the band have been to numerous live showings at the studio themselves, catching the likes of Aldous RH and support for their upcoming show at Manchester’s Dancehouse Theatre, Francis Lung. “I just felt sorry for our fans having to go through that.” Chuckles Duncan, referring to the live streaming aspect of the situation and the potential for re-takes and forced clapping. ”All they wanted to do was buy an album, now they’re being told to jump through hoops here. Where actually all they want is a beer, do this, maybe have a chat with us. I just felt sorry for them really, I just wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, really.”
“I think we wanted to keep it as much like a normal gig as possible,” Suggests Robin. “But obviously there are things that they need to redo to make sure that the content is as good as possible.” Originally built as part of the original Granada Studios, the studio was once used to produce soundtracks for such classic dramas as Sherlock Holmes and Brideshead Revisited. It was also used for the small matter of recording artists like the Sex Pistols and Joy Division for the intention of later going on to mime songs on ‘live’ productions. Since its redevelopment and new initiative to “benefit the creative ecology” of Manchester, the first group through the door were, quite rightly, Dutch Uncles.
“The whole idea that we were playing it in the room that we recorded it in didn’t really occur to me until I had to say something about one of the songs at some point.” Says Duncan. “Great studio though.”
“We might have taken it for granted.” Suggests Robin. “We spent a large portion of summer with no natural sunlight in that place.”
Duncan agrees, noting a reappearance at the studio following rehearsals for tour leading him to call the studio “fucking great”, though better at night than in the day. Back to the summer and the album itself, not even half-price sushi from up the road could help at times.
“No natural sunlight, just a load of half price sushi, migraines…” Continues Duncan. “ I had such a bad migraine when I was recording the piano parts. I was just there, head in my hands with sunglasses on, in the studio playing the piano parts to ‘Baskin’. I remember there’s a little kind of flourish or whatever I do in the middle eight of ‘Baskin’, I was just doing it just to kind of occupy my mind. I was like – If I don’t do this, I’m gonna be sick. Creative migraines.” He laughs.
”I think with any recording session, we’re very conscious of time. We don’t have unlimited time in the studio, it was like – we’ve got these three weeks to record, we’ve gotta do everything in this time period.” Says Robin. “It can be stressful. The odd bit when you absolutely nail a live take of a certain song can be really rewarding, so those are the bits you tend to remember afterwards, rather than the bits where you’re looking at your watch.”
University of Salford Studio Production lecturer and long time collaborator Brendan Williams was on hand, helping to co-produce on their latest album Big Balloon as he had done previously with ‘Cadenza’(2011) and Out Of Touch In The Wild (2013). With time allowance already being a factor, this meant less time with Brendan in the studio and more time preparing finished songs in the practice room before bringing them into the studio.
“We knew it was gonna be the case.” Says Duncan. “This is us basically trying out a much more DIY system than we ever have done before.”
Both Out of Touch In The Wild and O Shudder were said to be more akin to “studio experiences”, with Brendan also working with the band throughout the writing process on those albums. “He was there in the room when ‘Fester’ was being written, and he was also there in the room when ‘Upsilon’ was being written. He was there at the beginning of a lot of those songs for those last two albums.” Says Duncan. “So this time it was just a bit like him just going – right, well I’ll move that there and that’s that. Light touches, but effective touches, important touches. I’m not downplaying his role in it.”
“Then again, because we’ve done this so many times with each other, it was bit like – we fall for the same traps in a way.” Continues Duncan. “Brendan really likes to compress my vocal takes, to the point that I remember screaming at him during ‘O Shudder’ when we were recording ‘Upsilon’, because I was trying to sing the end of it and he had the compression up so high that as I got louder it actually got quieter in my earphones. I remember just screaming at him. We’ve had some pretty turbulent… It’s my fault, I’ve got a terrible attitude. I get that. I have ruined a working relationship there with Brendan, but this time it was a lot easier. It was just like – right, we’re gonna do three-four takes of these songs and we just see what we’ve got. At the same time, to me it was like – This doesn’t sound like how it sounds when I sing it in the shower…” He laughs.
Described as a “hurdle to get over”, even with time against them, there was still a sense of all hands on deck during mixing. A little Percussion here or some extra backing vocals there.
“During that time we were still recording parts, it was kind of an extension period.” Says Robin of their time in Bury, mixing the album. “We were probably there for two months.”
“It becomes such a stuttered experience that you just think – will it ever fucking end?” Says Duncan.
“We did two songs in different sessions before we did the full album session and we kind of wanted to get everything done in that space of time – three days per song. It never works like that.” Says Robin. “You can keep adding things for months and months. You need a deadline, definitely. We worked to it, fortunately.”
Production of Big Balloon actually began only months after O Shudder, with Duncan noting that there “was a lot of determination to get on with it straight away.” Following the departure of founding member and guitarist ‘Sped’ mere days on from the album’s release, the remainder of 2015 didn’t have much in the way of live shows – save for Stoke (“Stoke – you’ve got to do Stoke.” – Duncan).
“We had plenty of time to actually get started on the next record.” Confirms Robin.
“But even at that point, we’d known that ‘In and Out’ hadn’t made radio, ‘Decided Knowledge’ hadn’t made the radio, 6 Music Festival hadn’t happened for us, which effectively meant we weren’t going to get played on 6 Music. Commercially, we already saw the album as a bit of a failure.” Says Duncan. “Shit, this thing has lost steam in a matter of days. That’s what it felt like.”
“That determination to go – right, we’re just gonna get on with the next thing right now, ‘cus if we don’t start it right now we may never start this. If you wait till October/November to get going on the album, we might’ve just gone – fuck it, it’s too late.” Continues Duncan. “Just never have made it, just break up or hiatus or whatever you call it. So we had to get on with it quickly. It worked that way because – we wrote loads of ideas – but it meant that the important songs came around sooner rather than later. ‘Big Balloon’ came around kind of just at the right time – the song itself, that is – in the order of things. I remember we had ‘Achameleon’, ‘Same Plane Dream’, ‘Hiccup’ and then that – they were the first four of the ones that made it.”
The triumphant sounds of Big Balloon, characterised by its angelic keys, chunky bass and ripping guitar, really did set a precedent for the album – shooting straight into the BBC 6 Music A List and being championed by Leg End Marc Riley.
“‘Same Plane Dream’ was kind of like a manifesto type track and then ‘Big Balloon’ was like – this is it, this is the song that really pins the album.” Says Duncan of the track. “So then we were able to just have more of an experimental time with the other six as they came through. It’s important to get down that track early, because with ‘O Shudder’, ‘Decided Knowledge’ and ‘In and Out’ were the very last songs to be written for it, because we got told we had no singles. So we had to write some singles. One of those songs was great, the other one just wasn’t as great.”
“It kind of felt that we were writing quite cynically.” Adds Robin.
“Exactly. Writing a song like ‘Big Balloon’ means that you don’t have to write cynically after that point. When you know you’ve just got – that’s our first single. Fuck what anyone else says about it, ‘cus we know that that will be the single. So there you go.” Says Duncan with a laugh. “We were just very determined to get on with it, we didn’t want to disappear, basically.”
Previously described by this very website as a “100% dick straightener”, ‘Oh Yeah’ is an alarmingly catchy song – One of the major highlights from an album made up of nothing but hits. Featuring the vocal talents of members of Everything Everything and Stealing Sheep, I’m alarmed to discover that there were initial reservations around the track.
“We’re really pleased with Oh Yeah. We weren’t too sure whether it had single potential ourselves at one point.” Admits Duncan. “Is this too fast?”
“Too much going on?” Questions Robin.
“There were still question marks from the label – do you actually have a single on this album? Yes we fucking do.” Says Duncan. “Let’s not get into this now. Let’s not go through this whole shit again. ‘Oh Yeah’ has proved itself.”
“With ‘Oh Yeah’, I remember writing that second verse about the avocado and the wine thing in seconds, and then I had to spend about a month writing the first verse.” Comments Duncan. “It was the first verse that really got me, but when you’ve got the chorus and the second verse all there, you think – this is so good right now, I just need to make sure I don’t fuck it up at the beginning.”
Prior to the release of their latest album, influences were discussed in the press, with notable albums being used as inspiration including ‘The Red Shoes’ by Kate Bush and David Bowie’s ‘Low’ – the first of his ‘Berlin Trilogy’. Though when the topic is raised, Duncan suggests Bowie’s latest album ‘Blackstar’ was the ultimate inspiration, especially on closing track ‘Overton’.
“…Overton kinda references the Blackstar thing – dying as a musician after spending your whole life being a musician, whereas in a lot of cases people only get five years at it or ten years.We’re on nine at the moment aren’t we?” He asks Robin with a laugh. “People don’t get to do this their whole lives like he did. I don’t know… As I said before, we felt like we were gonna disappear if we didn’t start writing this album sooner or later. Then his death – making such a brilliant album, life imitated art all of a sudden. He died as ‘Blackstar’ was coming out and it was all about him saying – people, I’m fucking dying! Shit, no one’s ever gonna better that. They’re really… Well, then Leonard Cohen did the same thing didn’t he. Obviously I was obsessed with that, I was obsessed with our own death as a band, ‘cus it’s just always on your mind.”
The alleged less-cool Prog-Rock favoured by Dad’s was also a topic of interest, with Robin taking great inspiration from favoured Dad-bands after hearing ‘Hocus Pocus’ by Focus on the radio, having grown up listening to a lot of Prog.
“The yodelling gets a bit annoying after a bit.” He says with a smile. “…If you cut off the fat, if you cut off the indulgent pixie moments – there is some real musical gems in there. It’s kind of honing in on that. Early King Crimson as well, just really good music. Just sometimes a bit too long. Too long and too indulgent.”
“We struggle to write anything beyond five minutes, don’t we?” Asks Duncan. “I think we’ve only ever written two songs that are over five minutes. Out of five albums, that’s pretty weird.” He laughs.
Having reached the end of my crib sheet, and with their cups nearly empty, I conclude our interview with one of the most notable aspects of the Big Balloon period of Dutch Uncles career – The matching jackets.
“It was a couple of emails I think. The label just saying – right, crew cuts and jackets I think, boys.” Shrugs Duncan, smirking at the mention of the jackets. “The jackets felt a bit creepy at first, but then when we had the photos taken, it’s like – they do work in a way. I mean, they’re shit jackets, but I’m kind of glad they’re shit ‘cus it means we can just sweat out in them at gigs and such. We’ll throw them away at the end of March, go into something else. It kind of made sense, we’ve been playing music together for 12 years. It’s only when you get the jackets on that people realise that there’s any sense of unity. It wasn’t any reaction to Sped leaving, we weren’t like – right, we’ve got to look tighter! Nothing tighter than going to watch fucking non-league football every Saturday with each other.”
Click here to read our review of ‘Big Balloon’, the new album from Dutch Uncles!
Like what you see? Why not stick around and check out the other articles and interviews! Don’t forget to follow Birthday Cake For Breakfast on Facebook,Instagramand Twitter!
It sounds odd to say that the last time I was at Old Granada Studios, it was to buy a leather jacket. Slightly more music focused but still strange, the time before that was to do a few shifts at the Oasis ‘Chasing The Sun’ exhibit. The former television powerhouse, located just off Quay Street in Manchester City Centre, is home to all manner of events following its refurbishment and redevelopment, with some of the most exciting coming from Low Four Studio. Low Four is an Ultra High Definition IPTV music platform, hosting live sessions from all manner of acts whilst also acting as a recording studio to nurture Greater Manchester’s most promising new artists.
In the past year, the studio has featured live sessions from the likes of Weaves and Everything Everything, whilst most recently hosting a number of special preview sessions intended to promote the upcoming Stay Fresh Fest II all-dayer at Manchester’s Deaf Institute, featuring the likes of Seize The Chair and Patty Hearst.
With the nurturing of local talent number one on their mission statement, Low Four has recently been home to Manchester’s own Dutch Uncles– the quartet using its state of the art equipment for the recording of their latest album ‘Big Balloon’. Where it was once used to record Halle Orchestra musicians performing soundtracks for TV staples such as Brideshead Revisited and Sherlock Holmes, the studio is now being put to better use and its confines have potentially produced one of Dutch Uncles finest efforts to date.
Click here to read our review of ‘Big Balloon’, the new album from Dutch Uncles!
Last night saw Dutch Uncles return to Low Four and the very studio they recorded Big Balloon, treating a small studio audience to a few songs from their fifth album, whilst also using the occasion as a right royal knees up in celebration of the album’s release.
Title track ‘Big Balloon’ was this album’s initial offering from Dutch Uncles, released at the tail end of last year to signify that Big Balloon was well and truly incoming. It was also the initial offering last night in the studio, with frontman Duncan Wallis shedding his band jacket (love the matching outfits, by the way) almost instantly and jumping straight into his quirky, jerking dance movements to the sounds of Robin Richard’s chunky bass tone. The band have gone on record to say that they’ve rediscovered the potency of electric guitars on this new record, and Peter Broadhead certainly puts his to good use on Big Balloon.
The new record has been on regular rotation round these parts for a good month now, with each new listen leading to the discovery of a new favourite (it also lead to an unintentional Vince McMahon-esque walk down the street the first time I heard ‘Combo Box’). After following up the first track quick-sharp with the frantic ‘Baskin’, the band moved onto the sultry, shimmering ‘Streetlight’ – the last single to be released prior to the album’s release; an undeniable hit and definitely a personal favourite.
It’s interesting to hear that ‘Same Plane Dream’, with its darker, jarring verses, was one of the earlier cuts leading into the recording of the album, having an impression on how Big Balloon would eventually turn out (even being in the running for the original album title). This came just prior to one of the album’s biggest hits, the incredibly infectious ‘Oh Yeah’. It proved difficult not to mimic the moves of frontman Duncan whilst they ran through this (helped along by the Asahi beers on offer in the ‘green room’), with the audience getting fully stuck into the groove.
Taking a slight break from their new album but still keeping things running with their 80’s influences, Dutch Uncles then dove into a cover of ‘Stay’ by Glaswegian art-poppers The Blue Nile – from their ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ album, released in 1984. Definitely very much in the vibe of their most recent releases, this cover wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the b-side of a single release, with that soft, vocal style against a full-on 80’s synth attack.
During ‘Flexxin’, the broadcasts last song of the evening, guitarist Peter came into the crowd for an exceedingly humourous clap-along during the pulsating final closing stages of the song. Flexxin bled directly into the tinkling piano of ‘Dressage’, and I don’t know how long they’ve been playing it like this, but I loved how Duncan drunkenly controlled the keys as they teetered and verged, almost tumbling over themselves, before going fully into the mayhem of THAT riff. A pretty mental run through, drummer Andy Proudfoot hammered at some pace during its manic closing stretch.
With the cameras switched off and the audience near enough begging for more, the lads returned for a run through of the incredible ‘Fester’, from 2013’s ‘Out Of Touch In The Wild’. Having asked the crowd what they’d like to hear more of, we’re reliably informed that Fester is the only other song their newest charge on extra percussion/keys had rehearsed. Rehearsals have clearly been going well, and this old favourite was a perfect send off.
Like what you see? Why not stick around and check out the other articles and interviews! Don’t forget to follow Birthday Cake For Breakfast on Facebook,Instagramand Twitter!
Many have said that ‘favourite’ is a word I use quite often when talking about music, but I can say with the utmost honesty that DutchUncles are my favourite band from Manchester EVER. I stumbled upon them nearly 10 years ago, just after the release of their superb debut album and I have been hopelessly hooked on their progressive brand of indie-pop ever since. To me, they just get better as musicians, songwriters and as a unit on each record, with each new album becoming their best to date.
2015 saw them bring a sassy, 80’s pop tinge to their fourth LP ‘O Shudder’, but with the use of additional electronics and instrumentation they had created their most lavish record. Always ones to push themselves into new territories, DutchUncles keep it fresh on album five by presenting to us their most concise and straight-up pop collection to date!
The band treated us with the album’s title track late last year, which acts as a smashing opening here; its chunky bass line and big, glittering chorus is just irresistible. Actually, that is a good word to use for this record, the melodies are so strong, you just cannot resist them. Recent single ‘Oh Yeah‘ has this scatty little synth line that has been echoing around my head ever since I first heard it, then it bursts into this stupendously catchy chorus that offers one of the album’s most perfect bubble-gum pop moments.
Tracks like ‘Combo Box‘ and ‘Same Plane Dream‘ follow similar suit in providing cool, riff driven grooves before sinking into super silky, dreamy choruses that, to me, recall some of the singles off their second album ‘Cadenza‘. It seems like the band have gone back to basics a little in terms of instrumentation, with guitars much higher in the mix than their last two LP’s. Whether they’re shimmering away in the back of a chorus or driving a verse with a nice off-kilter fuzzy riff, the guitars are back with force here!
More or less, this is 10 straight up pop bangers. Even the stripped back, drumless centerpiece ‘Achameleon‘ still packs a punch, with a thumping piano based rhythm. Although saying that, it’s also impossibly pretty with lots of synths and strings layered over the top; it may be one of the prettiest tunes they’ve penned! Last track ‘Overton‘ sees them at their most prog as they throw brass, strings and xylophones into four minutes of theatrical joy. The last 10 seconds unexpectedly ascends into this fucking monster rock riff which quickly cuts off to my dismay. But it’s a proper exciting way to finish the record, designed to leave you amped up and wanting more!
Big Balloon sees the band at their most playful and accessible. It combines all the sass and sparkle of its predecessor, mixed with the more angular, riff driven grooves of their first two records. Every time I hear a new DutchUncles record I always get hyped, but this record has really grabbed me hard this time round and I just can’t get enough of it. I don’t think the band have ever been in it to become ‘big’, but with a set of songs this good, this has to be the record that makes everyone turn around and jump on this wonderfully crafted and sturdy ship!
Like what you see? Why not stick around and check out the other articles and interviews! Don’t forget to follow Birthday Cake For Breakfast on Facebook,Instagramand Twitter!
Birthday Cake For Breakfast 