NEWS...
NEWS30-04-07Our EP must be released soon... I mean, it must. In the mean time, we have almost completed our next LP. It really does sound better than anything we've recorded before. The titles are - 'million alix roz' (Alla Pugacheva), 'Impulses and Motivations', 'Unhappy House', 'The Logic of a Line', 'How Steep Is The Slope''Planets', 'Flamenco' (Los Brincos), 'They'll Preserve You In Amber', 'Words of Love' (it's all about the truth behind the numbers stations, this one), 'It's Snowing In the City', an untitled song which we played at The Windmill once upon a time, and 'Average Man'. We're very pleased with them. The vocal recording process, and a preview of the lyrics to 'Words of Love', can be seen HERE.22-03-06The Projects have contributed a song to the new June Brides tribute LP 'Still Unravished,' released on Yesboyicecream records. Other great bands have contributed too. Jeffrey Lewis, The Tyde, The Jasmine Minks, TVPs,.. loads more....07-05-05We did the Glass Shrimp show at Resonance 104.4 FM and played the songs from our new EP, which is now mixed and we are looking to release it after summer.22-03-2005Wow! The news hasn't been updated for ages! Phil Sutton joined to play drums with us and we embarked on a tour, from Norway to Sweden, to Germany and finally to Holland. It was a real success! Enjoyed by all - us, the audiences, Ben driving us around. Have a look at the tour diary!Our new EP is all ready for mixing, it sounds super to us already, unmixed!22-11-04Morgane left, Amanda Gomez (formerly of Saloon) helped us out with a couple of shows, and then Ed Ball took over for the Fonda 500 date at the Water Rats Theatre, and now we have found a permanent keyboard player with David O'Malley.We are half way to completing a new EP at Simon from Tompaulin's studio. The tracks are Voice is Glue, Dream Machine, Unhappy House, New Fun and Unknown Things. It's sounding good. Oh yes.Alex has a new bass, it's also a Rickenbacker, he just prefers black. What panache - changing your guitar all for the colour.January is to see Scandinavian, German and perhaps some other European dates, besides the UK Track and Field 'Winter Sprinter' shows (London, Brighton, Leeds).Graeme, along with Ed Ball and Mathew Sawyer of The Ghosts has been helping out with the recording of some new Television Personalities songs now that Daniel Treacy has (finally) resurfaced. Daniel is in top form and, it goes without saying, that it is great to have him back.12-08-04The LP is to be released on September the 27th, with a 7", 'Ulysses in the Supermarket,' released on the 6th.26-04-04The LP is finished! The sleeve is finished! It will now be released August/September.We have received the Broadcast remix of Accidents Will Happen and look forwards to an opportunity to release it as soon as possible. It sounds great!20-01-04
The LP still needs some mixing done, so the release date has been pushed back to May.
Live review in this weeks NME of the Winter Sprinter show!
And another review of the gig at soundsXP.com.
13-01-04
December's tour with Broadcast was much fun, as was the Track and Field Winter Sprinter, some photographs of which can be found at the Underexposed site.
24-08-03
The Projects' debut LP 'Playing Strange Games With The Insides Of A Tower Block' has been recorded by Amanda and Adam from Saloon. We're very pleased with it... Hopefully it will be released at the end of Winter / beginning of Spring.
20-05-03
The Projects are to record a session for XFM in mid June.
21-04-03
The Projects have an interview in Sounds XP.
15-03-03
The Projects are set to support Broadcast and Imitation Electric Piano at the University of London Union, on Wednesday the 30th of May.
02-03-03
Our debut single, Entertainment, will be released on the 31st of March, it is available now for mail order from our label The Track and Field Organisation..
31-01-03
Last night Graeme fell over and banged his nose a bit on a table after dinner at Steve Kirby's house. He is getting better.
SHOWS...
Wow, it's been ages since our last show. We don't do that sort of thing any more.PREVIOUS SHOWS -2005October12th Death Disco - The Notting Hill Arts Club.July1st Underbelly, below Zigrids, 11 Hoxton Square. With Support from Miss Pain and Go Team Go.June21st The Buzzard, supporting The Wolfhounds.27th The Windmill, Brixton with support from Zapatistas and Black Ramps.May20th Barden's Boudoir, Stoke Newington Road. Sonic Boom DJs.18th Projects live session on the Glass Shrimp show, Resonance FM.April29th - The Projects - The Chemistry Experiment - Manic Cough The Buffalo bar. 2nd Polysics - The Projects. Blow Up, Metro. Oxford Street.March5th Kosmiche club. Chrome Hoof - The Prey - The Projects - Asja Auf CapriFebruary27th Spitz, supporting The Prey.January29th Utrecht - BOFT! Festival28th Dordrecht - Popcentrale27th Offenbach - Hafen 226th Marburg - Cafe Trauma25th Leipzig - Fruhauf24th Berlin - Bastard 23rd Hamburg - Tanzhalle22nd Malmo - Inkonst21st Stockholm - Debaser20th Oslo - Cafe Mono8th Leeds - Winter Sprinter- Cancelled7th London - Winter Sprinter- Cancelled5th Brighton with the T+F Winter Sprinter- Cancelled2004November13th The Water Rats Theatre, King's Cross, supporting Fonda 500.October9th Club Debaser, Fritz's corner, Stockholm.September27th LP launch show at On the Rocks, London EC2.August21st 'Tapestry Goes West' festival, Truro.July2nd Mo'Fo festival, Mains D'Oeuvres, with loads of other bands, Hermane Dune, Jad Fair and Kimya Dawson included.April11th Track and Field Pow! To the People all day event with many other bands. March22nd With the Playwrights, supporting Chicago's 90 Day Men at the Arts Cafe, Toynbee Hall, Commercial Street, London.February21st Guided Missile night at the Buffalo Bar. With The Dirty Burds.January9th Day three of the Track and Field Winter Sprinter with the Loves, and Kicker. Water Rats, Kings Cross.2003December11th Birmingham. The Academy. Supporting Broadcast.10th London, Islington Academy. Supporting Broadcast.9th Brighton, Pressure Point. Supporting Broadcast.8th Cardiff, Ifor Bach. Supporting Broadcast.7th Leeds Cockpit. Supporting Broadcast.6th Edinburgh Queensferry Backpackers. With Homescience.5th Glasgow. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. Supporting Broadcast.4th Aberdeen, The Lemon Tree. Supporting Broadcast.3rd Manchester University, Supporting Broadcast.2nd Nottingham Rescue Rooms. Supporting Broadcast.October18th With The Dirty Burds and The Ghosts and The Rebel. Guided Missile night. Buffalo bar.8th With Margo. Arts Cafe.4th Club Syndrome at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club.August16th Supporting Klang + The Fiery Furnaces at The Water Rats Theatre, King's Cross.July30th Supporting The Pictures at The Arts Cafe.June21st 21 South St. Reading supporting Saloon and giving much needed support to Desdemona too.5th Supporting Saloon with Kicker at the Waterrats.May30th ULU supporting Imitation Electric Piano and Broadcast.21st With the Ghosts at The Arts Cafe, Spitalfields.April29th Artrocker night at the Buffalo bar, with B-Monster.March28th Water Rats, Kings Cross. Supporting Saloon.26th Arts Cafe, Spitalfields. Supporting Magoo.14th Arts Cafe, Spitalfields. Supporting The Rogers Sisters.2002November30th Spitz. Pickled Pop/Track and Field all day event at The Spitz, Spitalfields. Popoff Tuesday, Kicker, Jeremy Barnes, The Loves, Tender Trap, Bearsuit, Big Eyes. October19th ICA, London. Supporting Quickspace, Movietone, Wigwam and Saloon.10th Buffalo Bar, Islington. With The Ghosts and The A Lines.5th Metro, Oxford Street. Supporting 99 and The Lollies.August2nd Rising Sun Arts Centre. Supporting Saloon.July12th Betsy Trotwood, Farringdon. Supporting Aerospace. June26th Public Life Club $urp!u$.May24th Betsy Trotwood, Farringdon. Supporting The Loves.March6th Arts Cafe supporting Mates of State.
REVIEWS...
REVIEWS
The Projects Let's Get Static Album Review
Oct 15, 2004.
In a time where so much of the 'scene' is bands following current trends it is refreshing to come across a band that is doing its own thing and who seems to stand apart. Of course that makes it difficult to pigeonhole them or identify reference points on the musical map. Such is the quandary posed by The Projects, and I feel that this review just won't convey how good 'Let's Get Static' is. See, in the last year or so, The Projects have steadily shaped their tunes in their live set from what seemed formless art sound-scapes to uptempo songs that shift between strong rhythms and counterpointing melodies…
'Let's Get Static' is a set of songs shot through with post-punk rhythms, scratchy indie guitar, synth notes, dispassionate/cool vocals dealing with leftfield, alienated landscapes ("This city doesn't strike me as healthy anymore", The Street Under The High Street)'. Did I say post-punk? Mmm that can be a bad thing (cf Rapture) but here it is force for good. Well, anyway, the production and sound seem to echo 80's sensibilities: Alex's tight sinewy bass lines are rock and funk, dancey and distorted: Graeme's guitar is clean and scratchy, and weaving melodic lines; Lisa and Graeme's vocals sometimes spar, often in different melodies as if singing in different songs; Mark's spectacular drumming is flexible and tight, holding it all toe-tappingly together whilst Morgane's keyboards provide little stabs of melody or a curtain of synth sweeps. Here is something currently off the music radar, which may be a challenge to some.
Both singles 'Entertainment' and 'Ulysses in the Supermarket' are here; the former with its uttered lyrics broken down into component syllables and the latter with its intro bass line snaking its way throughout and insidisously catchy. But these are the mere tip of the ice-berg – and songs like the opening 'The Runner Up' and penultimate 'The Streets Under The High Street', display a healthy heady mix of early punk joy division and early disco new order…if you can imagine Ian Curtis whistling….The Projects alienated landscape is buoyed up by strident basslines, weaving guitar, dance rhythms and melodies to cry for. Loving the alienation, indeed.
I did say this review wouldn't do it justice.
Reviewed by Kev O for SOUNDS XP
The Projects - On the Rocks, London. 27/9/4
The Post Punk Wrecking Crew!
'Accidents Will Happen', The Projects warn us during the song of the same name. And, true to form, accidents duly follow, each one bringing with it a more spectacular result than the last.
First comes 'If There Are More Of Us', in which The Clash get about halfway through rocking the kasbah, only for Mark E Smith to stumble in drunk, spilling two pints of hot Stereolab onto the keyboards and causing the sound to warp into great curls of eeriness. Then comes 'Ulysses In The Supermarket'. This time, however, the accident is entirely your own, occurring as it does somewhere in your underpants. Blame the chorus: it suprises you from beneath as though bellowed through your toilet bowl from another dimension.
Should The Projects find a way to remove the safety harness that restrains them during the latter stages of tonight's set, there's a very real chance they could bring the whole of Shoreditch crashing down around them.
Hard hats at the ready, people.
Jon Brown - N.M.E. - 5/10/4
Let's Get Static LP - The Stereo Effect
There's four block paragraphs staring me right in the face telling me all about this record, and somewhere buried in the verbage are the words "Gang of Four". My hesitation in popping The Projects' debut, Let's Get Static into my stereo is astounding, for I have not the patience for more lacklustre and art rock pilfering. But then "Runner Up" pulses. It pulses a little like Gang of Four would have liked to pulse, but the Gang of Four comparison du année has long since left the building because The Projects are on another planet.
By another planet, we mean, of course, that The Projects don't really sound like the remixed/rehashed/refried disco-funk-punk that got the Gang of Four so much attention. Oh no, this stuff is more heart than art – and even when their jagged edges pierce through (which they do gracefully) – there isn't a moment when their discord turns to disregard. The stops and starts (or rather, fasts and slows) of "Runner Up", and the voices following the trigonometric curves of the song, gives a jolt of kraut to the system. But it's the serrated bass in "If There Are More Of Us" and gorgeous melody of "Entertainment" that make us start to swoon.
The Projects turn their romance into urgency (see "Ulysses in the Supermarket"). The kind of urgency that made Stereolab come to life. The same urgency that would make Ladytron less boring. Every time the vocals skate too closely to blasé Euro-shrill, singer Lisa manoeuvres it into a lullaby. That kind of impermanence, the undeniable moodswings (but without the unnecessary drama) – the tempo changes, the chord changes, it's as if the band gets bored of a hook before you can. "Accidents Will Happen" has at least four different songs buried like dirty little secrets, and the fantastic "The Street Under The High Street" pits two against each other.
When Let's Get Static comes back to earth – after the final notes of the inebriated album closer "Happy Endings", our heads are in a whirlwind of goofy glee. Gang of who?
Karen Piper - The Stereo Effect - 27/9/04
Let's Get Static LP - Tasty Fanzine
London's The Projects have that sort of studied cool that all of the Capital's bands of their ilk seem to pull of without trying. They look fantastic, for a start, and, my word, is 'Let's Get Static' sounding good.
Rarely off the tasty stereo here in Nottingham for the past few weeks, this album is the sound of a band whose music is pop in the purest sense. Instantly catchy, unfussy - yet at the same time, bastard clever - and stylish, most of 'Let's Get Static' hits the spot every time.
The first brilliant track is the mildly menacing 'If There Are More of Us', with it's great refrain of 'Our hearts/Are connected' before the count to eight begins and the chorus swoops in, taking you with it.
'No Revolutions' is my favourite. With it's chiming keyboard opening, the twin lyrics are sung so sweetly against a building backdrop of guitars and synth that this song fair brings a shiver to my spine.
For those bored with the endless noodlings of Stereolab, but who yearn for some POP in their synth-inspired indie, The Projects are the band for you, and 'Let's Get Static' is easily one of the albums of the year.
Sam Metcalf - Tasty Fanzine - 9/4
Ulysses in the Supermarket 7" - Losing Today
The Projects 'Ulysses in the Supermarket' (Track and Field). Now this has superb stamped all over it and don't let the older boys and girls with bad excuses for record collections tell you other wise. The Projects are a London based quintet who formed in 2001 released a debut single in the shape of 'Entertainment' (which sadly passed us by) and then disappeared for a few years to plan world domination the seeds of which can be heard on this two-track single and the ensuing debut long player 'Let's get static' due any day soon. As is our whim the flip side 'Nancy Garcia' gets the first mention mainly for the fact those of you out there who've ever laid awake at night wondering what a chance meeting in the studio between Honey Bane and Ian Curtis would sound like with both Postcard's finest Josef K and Orange Juice doing a tellingly edgy post punk makeover with (the as where Human League's) Craig and Marsh adding the futuristic swirls on an old rickety synth (so it's just me then eh?) then worry no more. Dangerously cool shadowy stuff. As if to add insult to injury 'Ulysses in the Supermarket' is even better, more of that machine rock stuff that we love so much here but this time cursed with an inventiveness that few groups operating in the same medium seem to sadly lack the grasp of. Sounding like a new age Stereolab tinkering about with a punk / krautrock hybrid and sneakily tapping into Quickspace's catalogue for source material while their backs are turned, 'Ulysses in the Supermarket' is blessed with a striking blank aloofness and a pulsating throb that literally stalks menacingly from start to finish not to mention being home to one of the best bits of pop this year at 1.21 where everything goes spacily light-headed. Neu romantics anyone? Deputy single of the Missive.
Mark's Tales - Singled out losingtoday.com - 9/4
Ulysses in the Supermarket 7" - Time Out Review
Fuzzy indie rock burbling under deadpan male-female duet vocals. Quirky lyrics and jerky rhythms to please students who can't dance. Marvellous.
Time Out - 1/9/4
THE PROJECTS Water Rats, London. 9/1/4
The Projects are tonight's real revelation. their sound may reference the angular urgency of Joy Division and the motorised hum of a thousand early electronic pioneers, but by some miracle they are neither pretentious nor po-faced. In fact, in common with retro-modernist types like Ladytron they sound simultaneously detached and comfortingly human. There's a real heart beating beneath The Projects' icy surface.
Julian Poidevin - N.M.E. - 21/1/4
THE PROJECTS Water Rats, London. 9/1/4
Fresh from their UK tour with Broadcast, the Projects are sharper than a tennis player after an illegal pick-me-up. They've really learned to win over an audience: there are people dancing to the Projects! Maybe it's not surprising when their songs are all pulsing rhythms and sparkly pop tones, and it's no longer possible to stick them with a Stereolab or Krautrock label. 'Ulysees In the Supermarket' is dancey funk-punk, making New York redundant. There's JAMC-style screechy darkness on 'Accidents Will Happen' while 'Runner Up' is a riotous contrast of relatively restrained verses and madcap punk rock choruses, shot through with manic percussion and exploding into a synthesiser meltdown. It all came to a big sweaty finish, the quality of the gig promising much for the forthcoming album and the band's future.
Set list: Eagles/ Today-Yesterday/ Entertainment/ If There Are More Of Us Will It Be Better?/ Ulysses In The Supermarket/ Accidents Will Happen/ The Street Under The High Street/ No Revolutions/ Runner Up/ Nancy Garcia
Reviewed by Ged M for SOUNDS XP
THE PROJECTS and The Pictures, Arts Cafe, London. 30/7/3
The Projects remind me of The Rapture, both of whom are building something new and innovative on the bones of the familiar and unremarkable. With the Rapture it's twisting that post punk-funk sound, which is standard issue for most New York bands nowadays, into something intensely rhythmic and very danceable. The Projects complicate Krautrock with Europop, and further muss it up with angular tunes and intense, boy-girl clashing and counterpointed vocals, with an almost slick wave of synthesiser sounds propelling them forward. If you only know them for Entertainment, you're in for a treat. The songs are more full of movement and energy than before and Morgane's synth stylings have become astonishing. Forget the Stereolab comparison now. The Projects are incomparable and the album that they're recording can't come soon enough.
Reviewed by Ged M for SOUNDS XP
Record Collector Magazine review: Entertainment 7".
A label usually labelled 'none more fey', Track and Field has grown tired of being bullied by the tougher labels and has gone all 'hard' with this single , the debut release of London's the Projects. Billing themselves as modern Krautrock - like a more vigorous Imperial Teen - the Projects combine deadpan vocals with precision drumming, cold organ (they feature ex-Stereolab keyboardist Morgane) and cutting, Gang Of Four-style guitars.
Although they're not strictly discordant in any established musicalogical sense, they still drive the listener to jerk around in a regular manner. A graph-paper alternative to that plague of messy neo-punk that's clogging up Hoxton at present.
Jack Kane
Do Something Pretty review: Entertainment 7"
The Projects take the same sunny outlook as Kenickie and produce equally mesmorising, melody laden tunes. Their angular, stylised new wave is played with a smile, melding discordant harmonics, dead pan vocals and synths that Dweeb would've given their...well...career for. The beautiful and intelligent pop on show doesn't come as a surprise with an ex member of Stereolab in the ranks and that same Gainsbourg tinged majesty envelops much of The Projects sound. Entertainment sharply attacks the senses before the wonderful synths and echoing harmony ring in the chorus, soothing the knife attack of the verse. In stark contrast is the flip side of What to do?, a rampant electro-rock stomper with boy/girl vocals. It eventually leaves the guitar hoedown to meet the sounds a computer might spit out if it's a bit fucked off and about to crash. Much to my disappointment it doesn't crash, releasing chaos and horror, instead it cops out and fades, but still a fantastic debut single.
Reviewed by Chris Parkin for Do Something Pretty Fanzine.
NME single review: Entertainment
Some groups need time in self assurance boot camp. Take Londoners The Projects: utterly at odds with their gang-banging, ghetto-thug name, this debut single is an unassumingly fantastic blend of steam rolling krautrock bass, post-punk yelping, underwater synths and angel-larynxed indie interludes. But then they go and package the whole thing in a sleeve with a picture of a drizzly caravan park on the cover that makes it look as about as enticing as a ricin milkshake. The fools.
Reviewed by Pat Long for the New Musical Express, 29/3/3
Pickled Pop! All Dayer KICKER/POP OFF TUESDAY/TENDERTRAP/THE LOVES/THE PROJECTS/BEARSUIT/THE SINISTERS/BIG EYES Spitz, London. 30/11/2
Time for the third band of the day and a welcomed break from the crap. The Projects are all lovely harmonies driven by brilliant keyboards, a bloke playing guitar who sings occasionally and who has great hair and a gorgeous female singer. It's girly, lovely pop in the vein of Kenickie without the grrrl power attitude and it lets a bit of sun into the room for the first time. Watch out for a release on Track and Field in the near future. They ended their set with a three-way jam on their keyboards, with their drummer encouraging them by building up the speed until a finger was placed on the wrong key and it was all over.
Reviewed by Do Something Pretty
QUICKSPACE/SALOON/WIGWAM/THE PROJECTS London Institute of Contemporary Arts 19/10/2
The Projects kick off proceedings and if I had to choose I'd say they were the best band of the evening, simply because I wasn't sure what to make of them. They can write angular indie pop with melody and hooks but then they can equally confound you with broken, uneven tempos or tunes which are simply too fussy. Arty? Probably. Clearly a band with lots of ideas and not content to stick to one thing for too long. I barely care that a refusenik keyboard awakens the band out of their stage ennui (sorry but any vocalist who has their arms crossed all through the set looks bored to me) when it stops, turns up its volume or goes out of tune of its own accord. It all seems a part of things. The Golden Age of Spaceflight sounded impressive with its shared guy/girl vocals, funky drumming and Joy Division bassline but we'll have to wait for the Track and Field single Entertainment to hear what they sound like on record.
Reviewed by Kev for SOUNDS XP
THE PROJECTS Happy Robots Festival, The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading 2/8/2
The hall is pretty moist by the time The Projects come on but any limpness is immediately dispelled by the refreshing blast of cool angular Europop from the direction of the stage. The Projects used to be Miss Mend and have now been joined by Morgane Lahote from Stereolab. There's a hint of spacerocky Stereolab about them, particularly in the squirly keyboard moods and the singer's French pop tones but more of a feel of post-punk Gang of Four to them in their spiky, dischordant pop pieces and a hint of Pavement at times (e.g. on Monument) in the way they are in quick succession atonal, rhythmic and suddenly melodic. The sound is layed and seems to work on contrasts: male Robert Forster monotone against female Europop chanteuse, a melody that is bullied by discordant guitar and Casiotone squeak, light pop choruses against dark jagged verses. It's still work in progress but the 'rockier' numbers tonight best suggest their potential. The title of the new single Entertainment harkens back to that Gang of Four comparison and it's their best song tonight (and future Track and Field single). It's the most melodic thing they play but it's cut across by angular guitar, unsettling drum patterns and disorientating keyboards that pull and twist the melody. More for the brain than for the feet tonight but that's bound to come.
Reviewed by Ged for SOUNDS XP
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