Emporium Best Of brings you sounds “From Another Planet”
......and a new single - The Umbrella Shop (released 26/3/12)
Edinburgh band, Emporium, celebrate their 14th anniversary with a seventeen track compilation, From Another Planet - The Best Of Emporium (1998-2011), and a new single, The Umbrella Shop.
Memorably described in Scotland’s premier tabloid newspaper as "a psychedelic cross between The Small Faces and The Beach Boys”, new single The Umbrella Shop showcases everything that makes their psych-indie-pop melange an attractive treat.
The unique sound of Emporium first came together in January 1998 when they started work recording what became their debut album, A Fine Fine Line, which emerged blinking into the world, in 1999. Right from the off, acclaim was theirs, with the track Sleeping Dogs featuring in the NME published year-end top 10 songs of BBC Scotland’s Beat Patrol show, along with a 5-star (out of 5) review in Guitarist magazine for the Happy High EP. Naturally, the boys in the band let this go to their heads, and embarked on a wild time, which culminated in the Elevate single collaboration with Freddie Phillips, best known for his work on the "Camberwick Green", "Trumpton" and "Chigley" TV programmes.
The arrival of the 21st century saw Emporium lay siege to the airwaves with Zombie appearing on the legendary Steve Wright’s radio show and Happy High on BBC Radio One’s The Evening Session, amongst many others. The album It’s The Thought That Gets You High arrived, and the single Lisa On The Screen saw the band expand internationally, with airplay in Germany, Holland and America.The next record, Hallucinations was album of the month on Popscene (Netherlands) and Planete Indie (Belgium).
Then, their country came calling, and Emporium answered that call.The Scottish Arts Council gave a grant towards the next album, Silver Brainwaves, conferring money and status upon the band. The single Wasted received some of the best reviews to date, but save for a remix of Dice Man on the Whimsical Records compilation “Elevate”, everything went quiet for several years, as the band concentrated on developing their Whimsical label and its subsidiary, Platform Records, yielding over 20 releases and winning critical acclaim and indie chart placings with numerous artists.
But with the music industry in freefall, Emporium have decided the time is right to return, in an attempt to save the day. Their pop music from another planet with sixties keyboards, Beach Boys harmonies, ethereal falsetto vocals and slightly twisted melodies, has always been timeless, but that time is actually now. The world doesn’t need more bad karaoke. What it needs is the feel of Soft Cell getting it on with the Stranglers while Brian Wilson watches from his sandpit.
And you get all that and more, across the seventeen tracks on From Another Planet...., as well as the unsettling sense of someone looking at you skew-wiff through a telescope.
Emporium have the capability to take you on a true listening experience with their song writing and new single The Umbrella Shop reinforces their unique take on modern indie pop music, with floating melodies that are constantly on the move. It's B-side She Won't Come Out To Play, a track from 2001 offers a lighter taste of the band, harking to their Silver Brainwaves period, with prog, psychedelic undertones so fundamental to their dynamic.
Emporium are a rare beast of their own making and their sound is genuinely difficult to type cast. It's all rather strange and eccentric but you won't hear many other tunes like these, so go get some now.
The album From Another Planet - The Best Of Emporium (1998-2011), and single The Umbrella Shop are released March 26th on Whimsical Records. CDs at Amazon, download from all stores.
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