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.
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