WIN A 14-TRACK SAMPLER!English Rock: Turin Brakes

Acoustic guitar, mandolin, strings, slide guitar—it sounds like a folky combination, maybe almost Americana, but throw in some keyboards and programming and gently, drawn-out vocals, and then we’re much more in English Rock territory.

Turin Brakes creates these wonderful snapshots of life and characters on their albums, The Optimist LP and Ether Song. While certainly much less rockier than Oasis, less dance than Stone Roses, still Turin Brakes lands next to them in the quintessential English Rock area within the English Rock category of the Spectrum. They’re hear mostly for a similarity with Coldplay—songs that are orchestrated, moving from tempo to tempo, moving from gentle, balladic approach to full-blown, emotional outbursts.

Turin Brakes is Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian whose vocal harmonies blend and float over the more angular folk-like rhythms of guitars. The vocals work just like the keyboards and electric guitar passages to create more of the English Rock feeling than a Folk-influenced Rock feeling.

Meanwhile, the vocals describe emotional storms in just little spaces, little movements in the music making the terror, sadness, and guilt so real. These are also vocals that tend to combine heart language (“Oh, please save me, save me from myself”) with daily life references stuck inside emotional metaphors (“a thirty seven thousand foot wanderlust and/with skyline number 9 ticked off in my mind”) (both quotes from “Underdog (Save Me”), The Optimist LP). That ability to catch your attention by saying some word from daily life (WD40, bacon and eggs, internal combustion, Syphillis), and while that is jarring, the song immediately drags you back into the very great emotional sea created by the song.

Plus, Turin Brakes is given to some great word combinations, a trait admired in others like XTC, where phrases combine in unlikely ways. Both from Ether Song: “Take the pain killer/Cycle your bicycle/Leave all the misery behind” (“Pain Killer (Summer Rain”) or “If I was a farmer/instead of a faker/If I was a realer/and not just some raker/Raking through a memory/That doesn’t belong to me” (“Average Man”).

That wordplay works like the folky instruments—it tempts you, almost draws you out into being conscious of the world again—but the melody, the keyboards, the beautiful drawn out lines take you back in, back to English Rock, back to your heart. You see, Turin Brakes, caught your attention, and then took on a dance that spins you into your emotions.

You can win a free Astralwerks CD sampler which has 14 full-length tracks including one from Turin Brakes. In addition, you get to check out Sondre Lerche, Ed Harcourt, Royksopp, and Placebo, plus others.

To win, you must get your friend to email me. Then you and your friend each get a copy of the sampler. Your friend must mention one of the English Rock bands mentioned in the post (besides Turin Brakes) and also mention your name and email. It’s a team thing, and you both win! (The 6 week rule is waived for this one, because I want the regulars to help spread the word about Music Spectrum). Winners: Marisa of Texas sent her friend, Kate from Arkansassy over to win. What a team!

Thanks to Astralwerks and to Katie for their help in providing review copies.