Group A.D. today announce their debut EP ‘Colour Space Transform‘ which is set for release March 27th. The title-track from the EP was premiered this morning by Lauren Laverne on BBC 6Music.
Group A.D. is a brand new Leeds based project. The name stands for The Group For Action & Dance. and their music sits somewhere between dubbed out, psychedelic no-wave and spaghetti-western orchestral maximalism.
The band have only played two shows to date, including a sold-out in the round performance for their debut gig, and a sold-out support slot at O2 Academy Leeds with English Teacher.
On the new single, Aidan from the band says:
“There is no greater frontier than the one in the rear view mirror’ is the opening lyric to ‘Colour Space Transform’ and one that encapsulates its message. There’s a great joy in paying homage to different eras of music, and this is a song of two worlds- the sixties and the eighties, two musical eras in both in style and production. In the words of the electronic pioneer Daphne Oram, we’re ‘looking back…to see ahead.’
When writing the song, I started with a sample of an old French soul track. The string part was written around that, and then I removed the sample- the act of taking it away seemed to give the strings a yearning, cinematic feel- a waxing and waning which became the core of ‘Colour Space Transform’. It felt right to bring that string refrain into full bloom at the end of the song- like the closing credits of some strange television film...”
Across the debut EP, tracks slip between the orchestral flourishes of John Barry and Ennio Morricone, the surf-rock of Jet Harris and spectral ‘80s dance floor maximalism – with each style appearing as suggestion rather than imitation.
Samples punctuate the songs throughout – narrations, incandescent preachers, machines, children’s voices, all a patchwork of cut-out motifs that open portals into uncanny new worlds.
1. Theme For Group A.D.
2. Colour Space Transform
3. Forza A.D.
4. Twist
5. This Is The Sound