Archive

Darius Keeler, Danny Griffiths, Craig Walker (vocals) Life's a bitch. Life is sweet. Life is short. So many books you've yet to read, places you've yet to see. Your heart's still open to new music, but with scores of lacklustre records currently being presented as works of genius, your inner cynic's out and proud. Ladies and gentlemen, we understand. But now it's time to reacquaint yourselves with the real deal. In 1996, Archive brought you the blissed-out classic, Londinium. In 1999, they delivered Take My Head, a collection of symphonic torch songs for the New Millennium. Now it's 2002, and although there's been trouble at mill, the band are again treading pastures new. The result is You All Look The Same To Me, a self-produced hard-hitting, heart-raw opus that's released on Hangman Records on May 20th 2002. Once again, there have been changes of personnel. Dublin-born vocalist Craig Walker (formerly of indie outfit Power Of Dreams) now replaces Suzanne Wooder, just as she once replaced Londinium vocalist, Roya. We'll make no excuses, apologies or attempts at justification. Instead, we'll simply acknowledge that band line-up's are like marriages and friendships : sometimes they fragment. For the record, Craig's joining was down to an advert in the NME which he was first to answer. Darius had cited Pink Floyd as an influence, the point being that Archive aim to be as innovative and uncompromising as Floyd were circa Animals. Anyone doubting Archive's ability to shaft the sonic zeitgeist should lend an ear to album opener, 'Again', a highly-emotive epic which deliberately snaps the cords of day-time radio's strait-jacket. Craig's succinct description ? "A statement of intent." If you had to pin You All Look The Same To Me down to one key theme, you might opt for 'the pain and necessity of letting go.' Some of its stark, minimalist lyrics are informed by bereavement; others were inspired by incidents which might easily have resulted in crimes of passion. Hardly the stuff of throwaway pop, then, but certainly the stuff of real life. Like much of Archive's previous output, the album was recorded at Southside Studios, a dingy hideaway beneath a florist's shop in Clapham, South London. "There's no daylight and no Playstation in the lobby", says Craig, "but having nothing to do except work suited us fine." Throughout the new record, long-term Archivists Darius & Danny tweak and refine their soundscapes with taste and flair, scuffing-up a drum-loop here, adding dream-dust there. 'Meon' is dark and affecting, 'Goodbye' tragically beautiful, 'Hate' brutally honest as it rides Baroque-sounding keyboards to a woozy, trumpet-bolstered impasse. All three tracks are typical of a record which blends timbres and textures as judiciously as Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden, Portishead's Dummy, or My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Various guest musicians help make the record exceptional, but perhaps the input of harmonica-player Alan Glen - once part of The Yardbirds line-up that featured Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck - deserves special mention. Together with talented young-gun, Tom Brazelle, Glen provides the goosebump-inducing harmonica motifs on the aforementined 'Again'. "We originally thought of Carl Hyde form Underworld", explains Darius, "but he wasn't around, so we picked Alan's name out of The Musician's Union book. "Alan's a great old cat", adds Danny. "Turned up with this battered old suitcase... we didn't realise who he was until he started talking." The album's title? That works on two levels. Though partly a comment upon music's current herd mentality, it was actually lifted from an unfinished song Danny had started writing at his local boozer. His inspiration, it seems, was the there-but-for-the grace-of-God feeling many of us have had while watching those whom life has dealt a particularly testing hand : "In different circumstances, the flash guy at the bar buying all the drinks could've easily been the down and out outside, you know?" Fittingly, album cover-art by Archive's friend and soul-mate, Alaric, expands on the theme. Featuring 32, uncaptioned portraits from a 1972, Arizona college yearbook, it invites the viewer to guess what has become of each fresh-faced student. Darius, Danny and Craig instantly knew it was right, and Darius was reminded of an incident relating to his schooldays : "My brother and I went to the same school in Streatham around 1978-79. There were only about 4 or 5 black kids, and all that National Front bollocks had kicked-off in a big way. There was this kid we knew, a real hard, skinhead bastard who was right into it. Anyway, my brother found him on the Friends Reunited website recently, and he'd written an apology about his racism to anybody he'd offended. I was really glad he'd finally seen sense." In mainland Europe, audiences have already been thrilling to live dates by Archive's latest line-up, recognising songs from the new album as the work of a band for whom treading water would be death. Out on (insert release date here), You All Look The Same To Me is a bold, occasionally unnerving work destined to re-establish Archive as main contenders. If it doesn't move you, we suggest you check your pulse.

You All Look The Same To Me
	1. Again 2. Numb 3. Meon 4. Goodbye 5. Now And Then 6. Seamless 7. Finding It So Hard 8. Fool 9. Hate 10. Need

You All Look The Same To Me
	1. Again 2. Numb 3. Meon 4. Goodbye 5. Now And Then 6. Seamless 7. Finding It So Hard 8. Fool 9. Hate 10. Need

You All Look The Same To Me
	1. Again 2. Numb 3. Meon 4. Goodbye 5. Now And Then 6. Seamless 7. Finding It So Hard 8. Fool 9. Hate 10. Need