Recently finished a tour with Red Paper Dragon. Cheers to everyone who came out and to all the promoters (nearly all of whom were excellent). Check out the bands we shared stages with : From The Sky, 50ft Panda, fbcfabric & reindeer, Sweat Mouth, Anderson, Dharma Bums, Elephants on Acid, And So I Watch You From Afar. It was great to spend so much time playing with and drinking with all these guys (especially the mighty Red Paper Dragon).
Flies Are Spies From Hell began around the Summer of 2004, when we first started jamming with Fred (keys) and writing more instrumentally (we still had a singer then). Our first gig was at the infamous Crown and Cushion, Haslemere, on 2nd October 04. Since then we've played all over including Leeds, London, Chichester, Oxford, Brighton, Bognor, Guildford, Southampton.....
Basically we get together in our mates old gym, have a laugh, get pissed quite a bit, and jam music until they become songs. Some of these we record onto EPs and most get played live at some point or another. Simple really. We don’t wear sunglasses at night.
Some of the bands we have been fortunate enough to share a stage with are Russian Circles, Witches, They Don't Sleep, Last Days of Lorca, AndNoStar, UpCDownC, *Shels, Everyone to the Anderson, Our Own Devices. What we love most of all is playing gigs with promoters who put on great nights with original bands from a similar genre. Swiss concrete, My Analogue and the guys at the Joiners are great examples of such promoters.
-- Cheers to Organ for supporting us since our first demo. Cheers to Sean for playing us on resonancefm, Huw at Radio 1, Milly at SpiritFM, and Plug in Brighton --
These nice people said these nice things :
"Great piano led instrumentals from the moment they invade the stage to the moment I catch my breath afterwards." Ejector Seat.
"Creating slow-building brooding and uplifting soundscapes to an enthusiastic crowd. Flies put 100% into it tonight, working up a small maelstrom on their final number." Organ magazine (myspace.com/organ – Go there now!)
"Opening proceedings tonight are the stellar Flies are Spies From Hell. Within two songs they pretty much win the Creation of Atmosphere competition and have the already-jammed venue salivating with their impending doom-style narrative. . All things considered, you could not hope for a better opener, and one that with any luck will be headlining in the near future." www.oxfordbands.com
“There's a simplicity and innocence in their big landscapes, a simplicity that lets the music speak for itself; with a lot of bands moving toward or emerging playing instrumental art rock, you get a whiff or chinstroking and/or elitism and/or missing the point. Flies Are Spies From Hell have none of that - they just admit to liking A Silver Mount Zion a bit too much and wanting to lose themself in those mini-epics they write. Open, compelling instrumental rock.” - Organ again.
"Very scan-rock has it’s balls drop, grit on the glacial calm." (!) unpeeled.co.uk.
((((((((((( RELEASES )))))))))))
.........NEW LIMITED EDITION TOUR SINGLE..........
...........................ONLY 50 MADE............................
"Wallow in Threat" "Wolves in Hiding"
Available to Buy Now - 2 Quid
////////////3-TRACK "MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE EP" - 3 quid////////////
"a remarkable accomplishment, saturated in beauty, enriched with emotion, and compelling from the moment it begins." (thesilentballet.com)
"like some bizarre fusion of Mike Oldfield and Explosions in the Sky." (Nightshift Oxford)
"For a week solid, Flies Are Spies From Hell didn’t leave my record player... [they] are phenomenal in the music they make." (initforthemoney.net/zine)
"Mountain Language"
"King Sly"
"Next Hour"
5-TRACK DEMO EP.
"Rows of moving cages" "Yes, I think they're closing in" "Siding with the menaces" "People not here" "You're making me nervous; you've got to stop this."
Available to Buy Now - 3 quid
((((((((((EMAIL AND MAILING LIST)))))))))) ((((((fliesarespiesfromhell@hotmail.com))))))
Sounds good man. Its kinda weird Chris, I cant imagine you going to work haha - so you have a gf? Just remember, asking her "do you mind if I just finish off over your back" - it never works, they dont appreciate it.
Nice one tho!! Yeah man, the gig I played in leeds just made me miss the place so much. Stopped off in the Fenton for a pre gig pint, wanted to go to the dock but had no time.
Word to you, Flies Are Like Spies From Hell (ha ha ha, we were once called Red Pepper Dragon on a poster). We are all well, Oliver is yet to be a dad (due date is two weeks hence) and we are going back to the studio in June to finish off three songs for an EP ready for plugging at Aeon. Cheers boyos, good luck with the album xxx
Easily one of the most important bands of our times (and we don't say that lightly), Stars of the Lid are the highpoint of the ambient genre. Their influence on the music that really matters over the last decade has been huge, and we're incredibly honoured to be hosting them again in Leeds. This gig will be very very different, and very very special. Stars of the Lid have excelled at designing subtle, minimalist epics which sound like they're being played on a single multifaceted organic instrument. A wise man once described SOTL as "divine classical drones without the tedious intrusion of drums, or vocals. "
The Declining Winter is the musical project of Richard Vincent Adams of Leeds UK, the co-founder of the continuing group Hood and a full time stricken office worker. What does it sound like? Richard says "cassette tapes spilling out of the glovebox of a 1970's Datsun Sunny somewhere in the north of England, captured on Super 8 film". He's not far off. Live he is joined by a few more people to bring the beautiful pastoral feel to life. Wonderful stuff.
Well I am still struggling to pick myself up after listening to the wonderful EP you have sent me, many thanks and may your echos keep rebounding. Straight into my DJ set 2morra! Must get you down Dorset ASAP!
Joy loves the flies coz there is no one better than them. Fact. Hope the tour is still messing with the minds of the funky punters. you guys rock x (post-rock)
Golden Diskó Ship combines a mass of instruments and found objects (guitars, viola, glockenspiel, sticky tape, compact disc cases, toys…) together with perfectly crafted laptop electronica to form a world of beautiful, original and individual music - “…dreamy, experimental folk electronica that sounds like walking on the beach with the sun in your eyes."
The Declining Winter is the musical project of Richard Vincent Adams of Leeds UK, the co-founder of the continuing group Hood and a full time stricken office worker. What does it sound like? Richard says "cassette tapes spilling out of the glovebox of a 1970's Datsun Sunny somewhere in the north of England, captured on Super 8 film". He's not far off. Live he is joined by a few more people to bring the beautiful pastoral feel to life. Wonderful stuff.
Hands and Fingers makes minimally gorgeous cerebral music. He mixes samples, acoustic guitars, glockenspiel and ambient atmospheres with drum breaks that have been described as "Tortoise having a fight with Four Tet in the dark, with John Bonham trying to split them up". It's ace. Very ace.
A Forest of Sound presentation. It’s £4 on the door, doors are 8pm.
