Grasscut - High Down
(Download) Ninja Tune ZENDNLS243, 2009-07-20

Tracklisting :
01. High Down
02. Swallow The Day
03. Sorel Point

Links :
myspace.com/grasscutmusic
ninjatune.net

Press Release :
"One of that select band of artists who are making genuinely daring music that still remains an accessible and enjoyable listen" - Tom Robinson, BBC 6Music

"Playing the kind of steam powered imagined futurism that Daedelus does, Grasscut mesh phonographic samples with toy keyboards and Fender Jaguar riffola. It look likes Fuck Buttons on paper. I'm pleased to say it sounds nothing like that" - FACT magazine

"Sparse, democratic beauty... each glitch and sample is given the space to resonate in its simple splendour. Electronic music that makes you realise you're alive" - The Source magazine

Welcome to the world of Grasscut: sweeping melody, epic build, rain, dislocation, glitched-out psych-pastoralism, beauty and beats. Inspired by and continuing the bold tradition of English transcendentalism, this is music that could serve as a contemporary soundtrack to long-lost films by Lindsay Anderson or Powell and Pressburger.

Grasscut are Andrew Phillips and Marcus O'Dair. Phillips is an award-winning film and television composer with over one hundred screen credits. O'Dair, whom he met in their hometown of Brighton, is a double bassist, keyboards player and general noisenik. Together, suited and bespectacled, they are a kind of Gilbert and George of electronic music.

The pair made their live debut at the Loop Festival (Fourtet, Caribou, Holy Fuck) in August 2008, each armed with a laptop and keyboard - Phillips also on vocals and guitar, O'Dair double bass and stylophone. They have since played audiovisual shows at Tate Britain and The Great Escape and supported the likes of Fujiya & Miyagi, Nathan Fake, Wildbirds & Peacedrums and BLK JKS.

Their forthcoming, eponymous debut album is a transcendental journey from the Sussex South Downs of High Down to the Nintendo cathedral of Muppet. Weaving in between the lead vocal are voices from the past and the present, snatched from mobile phones and gramophones - a 1920s tenor, gossiping mums, a Victorian singing poet, a woman reminiscing about post-war rationing.

Some have heard in their music traces of composer Gavin Bryars, others Another Green World-era Brian Eno or the "steam-powered futurism" of Daedelus. Yet lead single High Down in many ways most resembles a kind of folk music - an original, unsettling exploration of the beauty, alienation and downright strangeness of contemporary life.

Biography :
"These forms exist. They simply have fallen into disrepair." - W G Sebald

So begins the debut album from grasscut, a transcendental journey from the Sussex South Downs of High Down to the Nintendo cathedral of Muppet. On its way it encounters both string quartets and casio keyboards, as well as a cast of voices including a 1920s tenor (The Tin Man), a Victorian singing poet (In Her Pride), gossiping mums and the Massed Voices of St Helier Choir (Muppet), a woman reminiscing about post-war rationing (1946), and two American property developers (Old Machines). The contemporary song cycle also features original vocals on several tracks.

Influences include Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Vaughan Williams, Brian Wilson, and Gavin Bryars.

Grasscut songwriter Andrew Phillips is an award-winning film and television composer with over 100 screen credits (to be viewed at unitedagents.co.uk/film/andrew-phillips/). His soundtrack album, Home, is out on Burning Shed and he has recently contributed tracks to Lo Recordings. He is also a former keyboard player, vocalist and arranger with One Giant Leap, working with Baaba Maal and Neneh Cherry.

He is joined on this journey by erstwhile partner in grasscut: classically trained double bassist, keyboards player and noisenik Marcus O'Dair. Live, they set up facing one another, at right angles to the audience, each armed with laptop and keyboard - Phillips on live programming, keyboards, vocals and guitar, O'Dair on double bass, stylophone, megaphone and toy piano. They made their live debut at the Loop Festival (Fourtet, Caribou, Holy Fuck) in August 2008, and have gone on to support Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Robert Logan, Valgeir Sigurdsson and Fujiya & Miyagi. Already booked for 2009 are audio-visual performances at Tate Britain and the Great Escape Festival.

Also appearing on the record: Frank Byng (Snorkel - Slowfoot Records) and David Bramwell (Oddfellows Casino - Pickled Egg Records).

Grasscut have received support from Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson at BBC 6 Music, Xfm's John Kennedy and Totally Radio.

Grasscut's debut album is a transcendental journey from the England of the Sussex South Downs of 'High Down' to the Nintendo Cathedral of 'Muppet'. On its way it encounters a cast of voices from the past and the present, including a 1920s tenor ('The Tin Man'), gossiping mums ('Muppet'), a late Victorian singing poet ('In Her Pride'), a woman reminiscing about post-war rationing ('1946'), and two American property developers discussing a deal ('Old Machines'). The cycle of songs also features original vocals as on the layered harmonies of 'High Down', 'The Door in the Wall', 'Old Machines' and 'Meltwater'.

Grasscut composer/songwriter Andrew Phillips is an award-winning film and television composer with over 100 screen credits (to be viewed at unitedagents.co.uk/film/andrew-phillips/). His soundtrack album, Home, is out now on Burning Shed and he has recently contributed tracks to Lo Recordings. He is joined on this journey by erstwhile partner in grasscut: classically trained double bassist, keyboards player and noisenik Marcus O'Dair. Also appearing on the record: Frank Byng (Snorkel, Slowfoot Records); David Bramwell (Oddfellows Casino, Pickled Egg Records); and The Massed Voices of St Helier Choir.

Grasscut made their live debut at the Loop Festival (Fourtet, Caribou, Holy Fuck) in August 2008, each armed with a laptop and keyboard, Phillips also on vocals, guitar and keys; O'Dair double bass and stylophone. They have since played Tate Britain and supported Fujiya & Miyagi, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Robert Logan, and Valgeir Sigurdsson. Already confirmed for this year are two audio visual performances at the Great Escape Festival in May.