When you’re dismissed as arch miserablists there’s only one place to go, deeper into the dark recesses. Editors return with ‘An End Has A Start’, a collection of songs in the key of death that sound utterly life affirming.

It is the balancing of the often mournful subject matter with music that ascends to levels of euphoric epiphany that distinguishes Editors. It is an art they have finessed with ‘An End Has A Start’.

“Garret talked about giving the songs almost religious moments - moments of spiritual ecstasy at the culmination of the track. It made us think about how the songs should be constructed, how they should lead towards that point. It gives the big moments even more impact.”

Editors have made a sizeable impact to date, steadily building fanbase and record sales alike. According to the band this incremental rise in profile and popularity is just how they like it.

“I’m happy with the level of success we’ve had,” Urbanowicz admits. “It’s been an upward scale of success we’re comfortable with. We’ve achieved what we have through effort rather than by latching onto celebrity. It means we can still go to bars or clubs and blend in. Image isn’t a thing for us; we’re quite kind of faceless in that regard. We let the music do the talking. The whole celebrity thing isn’t something we find attractive.”

The hard work and disdain for celebrity has allowed the band to develop their music surely and discreetly. Editors’ guitarist doubts they would be the same band had they made the instantaneous, quantum leap from unsigned nowhere to music’s high table.

“If we had hit platinum too early we wouldn’t be who we are today. Struggle is good, playing the shitty, toilet tours, in front of thirty people and a parakeet helps you find out who you are as a band. We owe it to ourselves and the songs to push them as far as they’ll go. We’re going to tour the shit out of this record. Scary as the schedule looks we’ve just got to get out there.”

‘Out there’ includes America, somewhere the band has, to date, enjoyed only modest success in. However, the grand flourishes of ‘An End Has A Start’ might prove tailor-made to satisfy the American public’s more bombastic tendencies.

“We’ve always thought America might like us,” suggests Urbanowicz, “Certainly there is a history of bands like ourselves: Radiohead, Depeche Mode etc, who have done well over there. However, we’re not obsessed with conquering America. If it’s going to happen it’ll probably happen three or four albums down the line. In a way, that would make more sense to us. The world’s a big place.”

Like a vast musical game of Risk, Editors are planning to take the world ‘one step at a time’. They are, Urbanowicz reassures, in this for the long term. A career band in the very best sense they’ll keep chipping away, like Andy DuFresne in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, until they see light at the end of the tunnel.

“When you’re 14 you imagine the music business to be about instant hype, about being part of some magical scene. When you grow up you realise that’s actually quite a dangerous thing, you need to avoid that and just work hard. I suppose the music world is much as the youthful me imagined it would be except with more dull bits! At the moment we’ve got this new record. It’s something we’re extremely proud of. Now we just want to get out there and play to people. It’s all Editors have ever wanted.”

This feature first appeared in AU Issue 37

What is particularly satisfying is that the band hasn’t sought to simply consolidate what they had already achieved. ‘An End Has A Start’ is unquestionably Editors, but there is progression and a greater breadth of ambition. If ‘The Back Room’ was a small screen masterpiece then this is a widescreen epic.

“We just wanted to be ourselves: Editors, but amplified,” confirms Urbanowicz. “Two years of touring has an effect on you. You’re in new surroundings, seeing different parts of the world, seeing other bands, bands that are trying something different. We certainly didn’t want to make ‘The Back Room Pt. 2’. Garrett gave us a lot more ambition, removed boundaries and encouraged us to try stuff that perhaps we weren’t confidant enough to try on the first record.”

Ah, the Garret Lee effect. Working out of Grouse Lodge Studio, producer du jour, Garret Lee has been behind some of the most breathlessly epic records of recent years. Urbanowicz waxes lyrical about his influence on the making of ‘A Start Has An End’.

“He’s quite a magical guy, has that infectious sense of enthusiasm and a wonderful way of describing music. He’ll just say the most extraordinary things, “I want you to make a guitar line that sounds like the sky falling apart and then being put back together.” It’s kind of daunting, though after a while you start to understand what he means which is probably even more frightening.”

Certainly there is a sense of majesty and indeed of experimentation (albeit limited) to Editors’ second album that testifies to the input of Lee and, more to the point, the increased confidence of the band. The record might surprise those who dismissed them as mere Joy Division acolytes.

“There are still some classic Editors’ moments in there, but there are definite differences too,” says Urbanowicz. “I think the first single (‘Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors’) has been surprising people. We didn’t choose an obvious song of ‘The Back Room’ ilk; instead we went for more of a standout statement. Musically, there are places on this record we haven’t gone to before. ‘Well Worn Hand’ has a very steady, Elbow-esque, quality. Elsewhere however, there are songs such as ‘An End Has A Start’, which could have slipped quite comfortably onto the first record.”

It seems perfectly conceivable, almost inevitable in fact, that Editors will become even more renowned and successful following the release of ‘An End Has A Start’. That they will have done so on their own terms, through sheer application and by remaining loyal to their vision is what most satisfies Urbanowicz.

“We didn’t set out with these pretensions about hugeness of sound or scope, or to achieve a certain number of record sales. We decided we were going to do whatever the hell we wanted. That’s the most important thing, to make the music you want to make and not what people expect. ‘An End Has A Start’ is the sound of Editors pushing themselves. If we’d just replicated ‘The Back Room’ then none of the band would have been satisfied. If you don’t push yourself as an artist there’s no point.”

Their singular vision and willingness to engage with personal experience has resulted in an album which hangs heavy with the stench of the grave. Death stalks this record. Frontman Smith is on record as saying that he, in particular, has become intimately acquainted with loss. Awareness of one’s own mortality or of the mortality of one’s beloved is to the fore on songs such as ‘Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors’ and the title-track.

“Lyrically this is a darker, more mature record,” agrees Urbanowicz. “We’ve always liked looking at dark, serious issues and camouflaging them in beauty to make music that’s uplifting rather than simply depressing or demonic. There’s a contrast, and that’s evident in the responses we’ve been getting to the record; some focussing on the darkness others saying it’s uplifting. That’s how we know we’re doing our job right.”

Continue to page 3

Former dance-punks turned experimental drone-merchants Liars have just released their most eclectic record yet. We talk to frontman Angus Andrew about witch hunting, freaking people out, and bossa nova.

Clearly having learned a lot from his time recording and touring with Calexico, Iron & Wine (aka Florida’s Sam Beam) leaves behind the sparse, acoustic sound and simple songwriting that served him so well on his first two albums. Here, nearly every song is underpinned with unconventional percussion (cowbells, scrapers, shakers, tabla drums, everything) and decorated with pianos, banjos, keyboards and seemingly whatever else he could lay his hands on. It’s not always the ideal vehicle for Beam’s folksy Americana. At one point the sliding bass sounds worryingly close to Bossa Nova, and the heavily processed vocals on ‘Carousel’ grate. Overall, though, a little more ambition serves well, and new single ‘Boy With A Coin’ perfectly matches the percussion and slide guitar with Beam’s trademark acoustic guitar work and gentle voice.

Words_Niall Harden

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car’, ‘Resurrection Farm’
FOR FANS OF: Sufjan Stevens, Wilco

Clearly having learned a lot from his time recording and touring with Calexico, Iron & Wine (aka Florida’s Sam Beam) leaves behind the sparse, acoustic sound and simple songwriting that served him so well on his first two albums. Here, nearly every song is underpinned with unconventional percussion (cowbells, scrapers, shakers, tabla drums, everything) and decorated with pianos, banjos, keyboards and seemingly whatever else he could lay his hands on. It’s not always the ideal vehicle for Beam’s folksy Americana. At one point the sliding bass sounds worryingly close to Bossa Nova, and the heavily processed vocals on ‘Carousel’ grate. Overall, though, a little more ambition serves well, and new single ‘Boy With A Coin’ perfectly matches the percussion and slide guitar with Beam’s trademark acoustic guitar work and gentle voice.

Words_Niall Harden

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car’, ‘Resurrection Farm’
FOR FANS OF: Sufjan Stevens, Wilco

Clearly having learned a lot from his time recording and touring with Calexico, Iron & Wine (aka Florida’s Sam Beam) leaves behind the sparse, acoustic sound and simple songwriting that served him so well on his first two albums. Here, nearly every song is underpinned with unconventional percussion (cowbells, scrapers, shakers, tabla drums, everything) and decorated with pianos, banjos, keyboards and seemingly whatever else he could lay his hands on. It’s not always the ideal vehicle for Beam’s folksy Americana. At one point the sliding bass sounds worryingly close to Bossa Nova, and the heavily processed vocals on ‘Carousel’ grate. Overall, though, a little more ambition serves well, and new single ‘Boy With A Coin’ perfectly matches the percussion and slide guitar with Beam’s trademark acoustic guitar work and gentle voice.

Words_Niall Harden

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car’, ‘Resurrection Farm’
FOR FANS OF: Sufjan Stevens, Wilco

Let’s get it on. Over the course of four albums, Viva Voce’s married minstrels, Kevin and Anita Robson, have been making sweet music together. ‘Loves You’ gathers together the finest tracks from their hard-to-get-your-mitts-on, import only albums. For the stalwart fan there’s little of note, however, for Voce virgins these eight tracks will prove as startling as freshly spilt blood. From the infectious strum of ‘Wrecking Ball’ to the kick-ass carousing of ‘Faster Than A Dead Horse’, ‘Loves You’ encapsulates the Robson’s curiously inspired musicality. Playing house in a world of psych-folk eccentricity, Mr and Mrs Voce make the most weirdly wonderful hosts.

Words_Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Wrecking Ball’, ‘Lesson Number 1’, ‘High Highs’
FOR FANS OF: The Breeders, The Shins

Let’s get it on. Over the course of four albums, Viva Voce’s married minstrels, Kevin and Anita Robson, have been making sweet music together. ‘Loves You’ gathers together the finest tracks from their hard-to-get-your-mitts-on, import only albums. For the stalwart fan there’s little of note, however, for Voce virgins these eight tracks will prove as startling as freshly spilt blood. From the infectious strum of ‘Wrecking Ball’ to the kick-ass carousing of ‘Faster Than A Dead Horse’, ‘Loves You’ encapsulates the Robson’s curiously inspired musicality. Playing house in a world of psych-folk eccentricity, Mr and Mrs Voce make the most weirdly wonderful hosts.

Words_Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Wrecking Ball’, ‘Lesson Number 1’, ‘High Highs’
FOR FANS OF: The Breeders, The Shins

Ambient, yet somehow anthemic Ulrich Schnauss’ ‘Goodbye’ is a breathy, spacious and Balearic affair. It’s a bit like the essential acids and proteins your body can only produce with help of certain foods, you didn’t realise how important it was till you realised you’d been without it for so long.

The record swells and fades in euphoric pulses right from opener ‘Never Be the Same’. The huge (everlasting) reverb delivers an otherworld feel, all mystical and enchanting. Using strings, xylophones, sweeping synth pads and uplifting key changes, ‘Goodbye’ transports the listener to an intimate wonderland of sonic sensuality.

Stand out track ‘Stars’ opens with a seemingly distant; quiet wailing that builds to unrelenting crescendos with pulse racing tempos, sweepings pads and double time bassline before finally giving way to the ambi-chill space puffs of following track ‘Enifield’.

‘Goodbye’, like Air’s ‘Moon Safari’, is an album to make love to. Subtle and romantic, while powerfully emotionally. Whether it’s embraced as a comedown kingdom for your hedonistic hangover or as a soundtrack to your space-aged love shack shenanigans, ‘Goodbye’ will be your defiant parting words to the outside world.

Words_Craig Sheridan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Stars’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Here Today Gone Tomorrow’
FOR FANS OF: Boards Of Canada, Brian Eno, Zero 7, Air

Ambient, yet somehow anthemic Ulrich Schnauss’ ‘Goodbye’ is a breathy, spacious and Balearic affair. It’s a bit like the essential acids and proteins your body can only produce with help of certain foods, you didn’t realise how important it was till you realised you’d been without it for so long.

The record swells and fades in euphoric pulses right from opener ‘Never Be the Same’. The huge (everlasting) reverb delivers an otherworld feel, all mystical and enchanting. Using strings, xylophones, sweeping synth pads and uplifting key changes, ‘Goodbye’ transports the listener to an intimate wonderland of sonic sensuality.

Stand out track ‘Stars’ opens with a seemingly distant; quiet wailing that builds to unrelenting crescendos with pulse racing tempos, sweepings pads and double time bassline before finally giving way to the ambi-chill space puffs of following track ‘Enifield’.

‘Goodbye’, like Air’s ‘Moon Safari’, is an album to make love to. Subtle and romantic, while powerfully emotionally. Whether it’s embraced as a comedown kingdom for your hedonistic hangover or as a soundtrack to your space-aged love shack shenanigans, ‘Goodbye’ will be your defiant parting words to the outside world.

Words_Craig Sheridan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Stars’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Here Today Gone Tomorrow’
FOR FANS OF: Boards Of Canada, Brian Eno, Zero 7, Air