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Storm the Palace release ‘The Moon Above Villiers Street’!
"Expansive, baroque-flavoured pop with a highly melodic bent..."
- Clash
Baroque-pop five-piece Storm the Palace have released single Moon Above Villiers Street and available to buy on iTunes and stream on Spotify. The single is taken from their forthcoming debut album Snow, Stars and Public Transport, out on 12th May 2017 viaAbandoned Love Records.
Splitting their time between Edinburgh and London, Storm the Palace create beautiful soundscapes incorporating elements of European folk, sixties orchestral pop and nineties guitar bands, to transcend a number of genres over the course of ten captivating tracks. The gorgeous animated video for The Moon Above Villiers Street was premiered on Clash Magazine's website and is now available to watch via the Storm the Palace YouTube page.
This audio was unveiled on Vic Galloway's BBC Radio Scotland show. The stream is now available to listen to via the Storm the Palace Soundcloud page.
The band announce their album release with the release of album track 'DLR Dreaming', which premiered on Folk Radio and is available to stream and download for free via the band's Soundcloud page.
A labour of love, the record was written over a nine year period while singer, Sophie Dodds, lived in London. Originally from Edinburgh, Sophie used her time in the city to write and create vignettes of her life; snapshots of the people who passed through it and how the city’s unfolding narratives impacted upon her.
The resultant record is an unintentional concept album full of compellingly memorable songs, both challenging and inviting, conjuring memories of chansonnier-style singers old and new; from Keren Ann and Chrysta Bell to Édith Piaf and Françoise Hardy. On songs such as ‘Nadir’ the band set the mood for what is to come; off kilter piano is accented by a simple, yet effective, rhythm section, all brought neatly together by Sophie’s pure, passionate vocals. The aforementioned single The Moon Above Villiers St creates a tension-filled atmosphere, built through a 7/8 time signature, with mesmerising repetitive mandolin fluttering and harmonies soaring, as the band come together as one to produce a rich tone and texture that is as welcoming as it is isolating. On Snow, Stars and Public Transport Storm the Palace have constructed an album full of contrasting styles and emotions, an ability that marks them out from current, contemporary indie-folk bands.
Comprised of Sophie (vocals, guitars), Reuben Taylor (piano, accordion), noted for his work with Meursault and James Yorkston, Pippa Murdie (backing vocals, mandolin), Gordon Webster (drums) and Sam Wilkinson (bass), Storm the Palace are based in Edinburgh and London and are signed to an American label; a transcendence that can be heard through the music they create. After Sophie began performing her own songs in 2013, she gradually accumulated band members along the way until Storm the Palace were officially born.
The album features a number of guest appearances such as Dan Simons (CYMBALS) and Jamie Kenny (The Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic) and was mastered by stalwart of the Scottish IDM scene C. Mantle. 2017 is setting up to be an important year for the band with their debut album on the horizon and a UK and Ireland tour scheduled for May to support the release. You can catch the band on the following dates:
Sun 7th May 2017, Tin at The Coal Vaults, Coventry, UK
Mon 8th May 2017, The Yorkshire House, Lancaster, UK
Tue 9th May 2017, Castle Hotel, Manchester, UK
Thu 11th May 2017, The Harbour Bar, Bray, Ireland
Fri 12th May 2017, Cobblestone, Dublin, Ireland
Sat 13th May 2017, Glad Café, Glasgow, UK
Sun 14th May 2017, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, UK
The Moon Above Villiers Street is out now and available to buy on iTunes and stream on Spotify. The single is taken from debut album Snow, Stars and Public Transport which is out on 12th May 2017 via Abandoned Love Records.