Congratulations single review Ice Tea

Ice Tea

Review By Dave Martin

Brighton based quartet Congratulations have released track “Ice Tea” in advance of their new EP “Slap” due out on 11th October via Bella Union. Slap is the band’s second EP and the follow-up to “Woo Hoo” which was released last year. The band consists of James Gilligham on drums, Greg Burns on bass, Jamie Chellar on guitar and Leah Stanhope on vocals.

“Ice Tea”, is a groove-heavy fuzz pop track that has a raw feel to it with Stanhopes unconventional vocal stylings reminding me of the effect that Saffron had when Republica hit the charts in the 90s. The track has an experimental quality to it fusing a variety of genres including art-rock, garage, synth-pop and post-punk and is underpinned by catchy guitar riffs. This fusing gives the sound an original quality that is unlike any band I have listened to, a feat that is hard to do these days. Commenting on “Ice Tea” guitarist Jamie Chellar from says: “In those strange dark days where we’d have to queue to go shopping at Tesco, I would ritualistically listen to ‘Icky Thump’ by The White Stripes every time I went, and those guitar sounds were a huge influence on this song in the chorus. This took a while to get right in the studio as we got very specific with how the rhythms of the core instruments in the chorus danced around each other, and we played around with adding new synth textures and percussion layers. It was super worth it in the end as it’s our new favourite song to play live”.

The band is currently on tour with the following dates:

5th October – Portsmouth – Night Currents festival

10th October – London – Shacklewell Arms *with The Wytches

11th October – Manchester – Beyond The Music festival

14th October – Glasgow – Mono *with Pom Poko

15th October – Newcastle – Cluny *with Pom Poko

16th October – York – The Crescent *with Pom Poko

18th October – Sheffield – Sidney & Matilda *with Pom Poko

20th October – Ipswich – St Stephen’s Church *with Pom Poko

23rd October – Brighton – Dust *headline show

On a personal level its great seeing Chellar doing so well having shared the stage with him over a decade ago and his talent has been evident since that time. With the band’s lyrics exploring themes of modern life, love, and self-discovery, delivered with a compelling honesty and emotion, Congratulations’ fresh take on familiar sounds has earned them critical acclaim and a devoted and rapidly-growing fanbase, positioning them as one of the UK’s most exciting up-and-coming acts.