Golden Animals Revisited

A far cry from Vixens, these guys were sunglasses-wearing, long-haired and bearded drone/sludge rockers highly reminiscent of Pontiak among others. Very loud and thunderous, they caused a very strange sensation at times – the singer’s voice seemed occasionally to cause your brain to throb when he held a note, one of those feelings which uneasily straddles pleasure and horror.

Andy Johnson
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2009/09/golden-animals-jericho-tavern-oxford-190809/


A short review of our set the other week supporting Golden Animals. Click the link for a full review of the gig, including Vixens and Golden Animals sets.
Got a few more gigs lined up for the next couple of months, supporting the Notorious Hi-Fi Killers at the Celler on the 24th of September, and ILikeTrains at the Bullingdon in October.

Indiesurf E.P Review

Spiral 25 debuted with their great EP here. They can be really good doing live shows. When you listen to their EP, there would be not much difference to seeing them live as they manage to stamp their live and jamming sound to their music, whatever track they play. :-)

Spiral 25 EP opens with “Let The Light Shine On”. It was quite an explosive track with the guitar keeps on strumming in the background. When Russell comes in with his vocals, this track then starts to have a very shoegaze appeal. It takes a while for the guitar to warm up though. You can hear it when the music takes a different dive into a new rhythm. And once it gets there, it would be hard for you to get out of that comfort zone as the guitar is too tasty to let go. It really has a jamming sound to it, from start to end. It worths the wait for the guitar to reach its peak and eventually going sort of wild. Spiral 25 are showing some potential here. :-)

“Signals” has a slower and softer start with the plucking guitar that never seems to get worn off. Once it picks up and the tempo notches a few gears up, you can hear Russell singing in an echoic surrounding, as if they were in a small and closed room. Further and slowly into this track, Spiral 25 can be heard going wild with the music, until it’s hard to make out what they’re singing. The only thing that catches my attention is the music though. Everytime after a series of pacy music and vocals, it is able to come down with such delicate touch. Only in the end, the music appears to be on an exploring mode. ;-) Not a bad track by Spiral 25. ;-)

“Shadows In Line” almost has a similar intro as Signals. Its distant guitar which eventually appears to be on a rock and roll mode is hardly expected. Moreover, it’s really good! And most of the time, i hardly pay attention to Russell. My attention is automatically diverted to the guitar of this track. However, patience is much needed when listening to this track. The real magic of this track only comes at 1:46 minute mark. The build-up is just an appetizer to bring us to the next level to enjoy the main course. Spiral 25 are getting me excited! :-D

“Today’s Future (Tomorrow’s Past)” has a harmonica opening. It is soon joined by the restless guitar that never seems to have the word “Tired” in its dictionary. Surprisingly, the more i listen to this track, the more country-rock element is coming together. Spiral 25 might just have combined psychedelic rock and shoegaze with country-rock. The core instruments here are the harmonica and the guitar. Together with Russell’s vocals that are just nice for Spiral 25’s music genre, Today’s Future (Tomorrow’s Past) is a big closer for their EP. ;-)

Rating: Spiral 25 are so much fun to listen to if you’re a big fan of shoegaze, psychedelic and lo-fi music genres. They are really raw on their debut EP. As raw as it sounds, it doesn’t have much flaw on this EP. Everything seems to work out just fine within the genres of theirs. With the lo-fi sound that they have, i would say they need not another chance to re-discover their music direction. They have already found their trademark sound. It’s just a matter of time before they have a large fanbase, which can be an easy process with the help of the Internet. I’m definitely a fan of Spiral 25 now and would love to hear more from them in the future. Great stuff! Spiral 25 scores 7.5 out of 10. ;-)

Stand-Out Tracks (My Picks): Let The Light Shine On, Signals, Shadows In Line and Today’s Future (Tomorrow’s Past).

Fan of psychedelic rock and shoegaze? Come grab Spiral 25 EP by Spiral 25 to whet your ever growing appetite right now.

Darren Tan
www.indiesurf.com, May 15th 2009

E.P release.

Our debut E.P is available now, both in a physical digipack with full artwork by Russell and as a digital download.

The CD is available at £4 from us at gig, or for Oxford people from Videosyncratic on Cowley Road. If you aren't local drop us an e-mail and we can sort something one.

Mp3's are also available from the following online stores:

iTunes
emusic
Amazon.com
Napster
Rhapsody

Spectrum

On Tuesday 24th February, Spiral 25 supported Spectrum at The Wheatsheaf in Oxford along with One Unique Signal from London.

Spectrum is the band of Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom), founder member of 1980s/1990s band Spacemen 3. This was one of the first times for many years that Spectrum had performed as a full band and it was quite something to hear Spectrum playing almost an entire set of some of the greatest Spacemen 3 songs including Transparent Radiation, Set Me Free, When Tomorrow Hits and Revolution. Almost like seeing Spacemen 3 themselves. An experience not to be missed.

Not only that but the whole night was brilliantly put together by Ady Foley of Oxford's Vacuous Pop promotions and record label with all 3 bands fitting the bill perfectly. The sound at the gig was controlled in house sound engineer Joal who did a wonderful job for the sound both on stage and off.

New material

Over the past couple of months as well as working on the E. P. we've also been doing some more jamming. Out of that we now have 2 or 3 new songs including a new set outro and we can't wait to play them at The Cellar on January 31st. We've also been working on our intro and a couple of little bridge bits between songs so we have a very solid and interesting set for the next gig.

E. P. launch gig

The first Spiral 25 E. P. is due out at the end of January 2009. The E. P. will be released on CD and features artwork by singer Russell Denham. The E. P. consists of 4 tracks recorded in Oxford by the band and produced by guitarist Chris Monger.

Let The Light Shine On
Signals
Shadows In Line
Today's Future (Tomorrow's Past)

To celebrate the launch of the CD the band will be playing a special gig at The Cellar in Oxford on Saturday 31st January 2009. Support is from CAT MATADOR and others to be confirmed.

Facebook event
Last.FM event

Gig at Lark in the Park Cancelled!

Unfortunately due to a dispute between the licensee and the owner of the venue the gig planned for Tuesday 7th October has been cancelled.

First London gig - Music industry unsigned band showcase with Alabama 3 DJ set.

Spiral 25 will be playing their first gig in London on 4th October 2008 at Dirty South in Lewisham. The gig will be an unsigned band show case, music industry people are expected to be there and the event will be headlined by Reverend D Wayne Love from Alabama 3 providing a DJ set.

Spiral 25 on the Radio

The song "Let The Light Shine On" has been played on BBC Radio Oxford during the BBC Introducing programme presented by Tim Bearder. On Saturday 20th September bass guitarist Joe Chapman appeared on the show to advertise the band's upcoming gig at The Bullingdon Arms in Oxford on 25th September.