THE NOISE WHO RUNS – PRETERETROSPECTIVE
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE ALBUM PREMIERE
Today we have the pleasure of presenting the new Preteretrospective album from UK-France project The Noise Who Runs. While this record features songs from the band’s first two EPs – curated and set in a more far-reaching context – we all benefit from the fact that there are also six new tracks.
TNWR was born from the mind of Ian Pickering, who is primarily known as a songwriter for Sneaker Pimps, as well as Front Line Assembly. In fact, he wrote this album’s material simultaneously to material for the latest Sneaker Pimps album.
Fans of Ian Dury, Sneaker Pimps, U.N.K.L.E., Ian Brown and Talking Heads should take note. There are 14 tracks here that are bound to tickle your ear buds and, lyrically speaking, leave you with a fridge-full of food for thought.
While he may not be a household name, a thorough and deeper listen to this body of work will reassure you that Ian Pickering is among the most relevant songwriters of this generation, with topical subject matter, sharp lyricism, a relatable attitude and music that is addictive as F*&@. This is the same spunk that the progenitors of punk and orderly chaos of early post-punk is made of. Must listen for 2023.
Formed four years ago upon relocating from Hartlepool, England to Lille, France, The Noise Who Runs is now a duo with Brazilian-French guitarist Felipe Goes. A literal translation of ‘O bruit qui cour’, a French phrase meaning ‘gossip’, The Noise Who Runs was also the name of Pickering’s favourite restaurant, where the ideas for this project fell into place.
TNWR drifts effortlessly between real drums and loops, drum machines, bass guitar and synth basses, with a large dose of electric guitars, synthesisers and keyboards, taking in any range of influences, from Elvis Costello, The Jam and The Stranglers to Suede, The Charlatans and Primal Scream, through to Gil Scott-Heron and Public Enemy.
The band’s latest single “2poor2die” addresses the growing inequality in society and the struggle of the unheard / unseen decent people without voices and increasingly without hope, following the anthemic lead track “Beautiful Perhaps” and “Takes a Long Cold Look and Then The Kitchen Sink” – the impossible, illegitimate child of solo-era Syd Barrett and immediately post-Talking Heads David Byrne.
Also of note are “Zoe’s Edible Garden” and “So Good It’s Free” (with their direct and obvious lyrics), the weird electronic, looped simplicity of “Off the Rails”, the pandemic-inspired songs “Things Fall Apart” and “Electronic Babysitter” and the wonderfully bizarre groove of “Somewhere Between Dogs And Wolves”, inspired by Ted Hughes’ poem ‘The Dogs Are Eating Your Mother’.
The latter part of the album oscillates from the utopian optimism of “So it Goes” to the bleak but beautiful view of the future of “New York To L.A. In Two And A Half Minutes”, before closing with “Under the Sun”, a campfire song with Balearic beats, which recounts the aftermath of a revolution that should be coming. Finally the song “L’altruisme” is a strangely disconcerting slice of electronic weirdness with perhaps the most poignant and heartbreaking lyric on the entire album – “it’s all true, the world revolves without you, but freedom never reigns, it pours, a hopeless case on hopeful cause, that’s all)”.
As of April 21, Preteretrospective will be available across digital music platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. Of course, it can also be obtained directly from the artist (with a larger percentage of the actual sticker price actually reaching them) via Bandcamp at https://thenoisewhoruns.bandcamp.com/album/preteretrospective
Album Credits
All songs written by Ian Pickering
Felipe Goes – electric guitars and keyboards
Ian Pickering – vocals, electric guitar and keyboards
All songs recorded, engineered and produced by The Noise Who Runs
Drums and additional recording and production by Julien Guyot
Additional production by Colin C at The Cell Studio (thecellstudio.com), except ‘Beautiful Perhaps’, recorded and produced by Claudio Meza aka ‘Spural’ at Mauco Records, Chile.
All songs mixed and mastered by Colin C at The Cell Studio
Artist photos by Théo Valenduc
The duo has also released several videos in support of this record, which are also worth your attention:
The Noise Who Runs
Preteretrospective
(TNWR Recordings)
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Artist Links
Background Photo Credit: Théo Valenduc
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