This record got announced around Christmas I think (possibly even Christmas Day - all the days around Christmas tend to become a festive blur) and I was pretty excited by the prospect of it. All three of the musicians here appear in my record collection in other places - Roo plays in Bangers, Giles plays in Great Cynics, and Kelly played on one of my all-time favourite 7"s - so I knew it would be pretty good.
The theme of the record is that the three of them recorded some songs over an apparently drunken weekend in the eponymous (had to look that word up to make sure I'm using it right; not entirely sure I am) Darlington House along with some other familiar names from the UK punk-rock scene. It's a great idea; I love the fact these bands get the chance to hang out and record together. It worked pretty well on the 7" I mentioned above and it works well here too. I guess a good description would be that it's some sort of cross between a collaborative Daytrotter Session and the Revival Tour (so much so, they went off on the Survival Tour, which I sadly missed because I was away).
The record certainly lived up to my expectations, although I was gutted when it arrived to see that the record had knifed its way through the top of the sleeve in transit. It's a one-sided vinyl, so its edges are that bit sharper than a regular record. I don't ever plan to sell any of my records, but I like them to be in nice condition anyway. Still, a minor thing in the grand scheme of things. One thing that works really well on the record is that the three of them have very different voices, so when they lend backing vocals to each other's songs, it sounds great.
My favourite of the nine songs has to be Under the Table by Roo, which consists of just a bass guitar, Roo's vocals and Kelly singing "ba ba ba-ba". It reminds me of Don't by Dinosaur Jr in the fact they both sound so different to the other songs on the album; Dinosaur Jr's album of lo-fi, indie rock ends with a brutal, industrial wall of noise and here, after eight songs of nice, mostly-acoustic songs, we get a dirty bass line and particularly-gruff vocals (I always feel like a prick calling bass "dirty" but it somehow always seems the most appropriate word). Other highlights are Giles' Harrow Adam, Roo's Hammer Whammer and Kelly and Roo's Banished to the Gods.
I'm glad this is called The Darlington Sessions #1, because that implies there'll be more in this series, and I'm very excited to see and hear whatever may come from future sessions.
Format: one-sided 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £10.50 new
Bought: Internet
When: 16/02/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
