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Liverpool’s Synth-Noir Trio, Beatowls, Release Their Shattered-Heart Single: 'All I See Is Trouble'
Making the underground at once darker and brighter, Liverpool’s meticulous, electronically-guided documentarians of the delirious melancholic state, Beatowls release a third single from their debut album, MARMA.
The kitchen-sink-drama-meets-trip-hopping two-hander, All I See Is Trouble, brings vocalists Darcie Chazen and Tom Roberts into suspicion-bound union, playing parts where neither is ready to take a leap towards the possibility of joy when the spectre of pain remains in play.
Released in November on esteemed Paris/Liverpool-based indie, Violette Records, MARMA’s painstaking construction above the glistening asphalt streets and barred-window warehouse buildings beside the River Mersey tapped directly into the deepest blue vein of imbalanced existence. On one hand connected to nature, yet scarred by the pace of the city, all ten songs portray the near-unbearable tension found where melodic euphoria cuts into lyrical angst, warm human arms find the most comforting embrace in cold technology and hope still runs between the cracks left by despair.
'It starts with one word, one line, one note, one phrase at a time. No considerations as to where it will go or who will hear it. No timeframe.' - Tom Roberts, Beatowls.
Completed by musician and producer, Carl Cook, the three-piece release All I See Is Trouble having launched with the affectingly sparse poise of Please Lie To Me, supported by a self-devised, filmed and produced film that saw Chazen, a multi-disciplinary artist and performer, take a charismatic lead.
Only ever reluctantly revealing themselves on stage after coaxing and corralling from the creative community around them, Beatowls continued their hide-and-seek emergence by later ‘leaking’ the soul-wrenching sound of longing, I Pray, offering a further visual expression of their ideas with Chazen/Cook collaborative video.
Having referenced Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, The XX’s, Portishead, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch, Broadcast and the roster of Warp Records in past communications, the unholy congregation of Beatowls walk towards the light of existence-mining musical pioneers, whilst stacking their own freedoms and self-imposed limitations on top of each other. An unhurried pursuit of fractured perfection, whereas, in the world beyond their studio door, there’s the anxious sound of the rush to get nowhere.
Roberts explains: 'It starts with one word, one line, one note, one phrase at a time. No considerations as to where it will go or who will hear it. No timeframe. Read over it, play over it, revise, tweak. Steal? Remove and redo. Record. Make it personal, make it universal. Get better. Happy accidents. Small victories. The idea is everything. Keep going. The idea reveals itself more. Revise, tweak and refine. Steal a bit more. Record again. Make connections, play with its fire. Make it the best you can. Rewrite and record again.'
Beatowls’ rare live expeditions will continue into 2024, while two more dates confirmed for the coming months. The three-piece will appear at:
Sunday the 17th of December - Leaf, Liverpool for the Violette Revue - SOLD OUT.
Wednesday the 28th of February – London, Soho Theatre.
Violette Records, not only home to the La Violette Società performance nights in Liverpool, where Beatowls were encouraged to perform live for the first time, but also previous releases by artists including Michael Head, Jim McCulloch and Studio Electrophonique, released MARMA on limited vinyl and digital formats.