Cityscape Records

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Merchandise’s new album Lo-tech Solutions to Hi-tech Problems has been gathering an embarrassment of adoring reviews.

As the title suggests, the album is the result of duo Brad B Wood and Conrad Astley marrying luscious acoustic loveliness with all the wonders of the electronic age.

And the marriage, as a host of reviewers and radio DJs have already noticed, is certainly a happy one, with tracks taken from it having caught the attention of good people everywhere.

Blowback magazine wrote: “Merchandise make the kind of acoustic electronica that’d be the soundtrack to a summer picnic in Hyde Park, with cute animals frolicking in the sun. A whole album of beautiful music. The sound of pastoral idylls and eternal sunshine.”

Elsewhere, Gill Rickson of SBN Radio commented: “It’s like someone got hold of Rae and Christian and made them cut up a Kings of Convenience album.”

Plenty more of these reviews can be found at www.cityscaperecords.co.uk.

Beautiful Morning for a Bad Day and 14:53 are two of the stand-out tracks which have been turning reviewers’ heads – gorgeous pop songs which see acoustic guitar riffs bouncing out of the speakers alongside lolloping drum loops, pristine piano motifs and Brad’s understated vocals.

Elsewhere the band step up the pace on tracks such as two-and-a-half minute bruiser Sunday Song and psychedelic burn-out Charlie Parker was a Hobo.

The mournful piano balladry of Distil Disappointment and The Last Stand of Pucho Vasquez provide other surprises as does the stark warmth of Winter.

Give Lo-tech Solutions a listen and you will surely agree with Tasty Fanzine that this is “Fantastic pop music.”

Swallowing Curses is Merchandise’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut album, This is . . . Merchandise.

The single continues the Bolton based duo’s exploration into uncharted sonic territory but also shows evidence of their growing ability to produce perfect pop moments guaranteed to catch the ear of the unexpecting listener.

Merchandise’s trademark sound is put to uplifting effect on Swallowing Curses which has flavours of bands such as The Flaming Lips and Pavement.

Swallowing Curses also contains memorable lyrics penned by travelling writer and band collaborator Roger Williams, describing the unadulterated joy of emerging from the mists of depression and looking out on a cloudless sky.

Not satisfied with the usual band policy of releasing second rate material to fill in the gaps Merchandise have backed the single with Terracotta Caterpillar, an enthralling cocktail of sound which melds hypnotic folk-inspired melodies with hi-tech funk a la Squarepusher and Aphex Twin.

Both tracks pave the way for their up coming second album, now being lovingly honed at Cityscape Studios and due for release in 2003.

Merchandise take their name from a song by legendary Washington D.C. outfit Fugazi and are on Cityscape Records, an independent label with a do-it-yourself ethic and an eclectic and growing roster of releases.

The boys’ first album, from 2000, had an eclectic sound encapsulating trashy punk, oddball electronica and 70s Miles Davis style instrumentals anticipating electroclash by some way.

The album blends live instruments with analogue and digital technology to create tracks such as the offbeat funk of Shooting Jenny, the whimsical lo-fi pop beauty of Unmapped Streets and the punky electro of album opener, New Resurrection.

Elsewhere tracks such as, Books, Black Russian and Zebedee suggest influences from the likes of Stereolab, Aphex Twin and New Order.

The album gained critical acclaim from Manchester cultural bible CITYlife (review left) and also received attention from national glossy Q who opined: ‘if an early incarnation of the Human League had fired Phil Oakey, replaced him with Mark E. Smith and steered clear of the dancing girls, they may well have ended up sounding like Merchandise.’ What can we say?

Lovers of invention and idiosyncrasy could do far worse than explore this lost gem.

Merchandise take their name from a track by American punk band Fugazi who also inspired Cityscape’s do-it-yourself ethic.

From Manchester’s CITYlife:

Under their adopted moniker of Merchandise, Bolton duo Brad B. Wood and Conrad Astley compose some of the most enchanting and eclectic lo-fi noodlings outside the Twisted Nerve stable.

As you’d expect of a duo who appropriated their name from a Fugazi song, the mood of their debut album is both restless and beguiling – sometimes frustratingly so. Veering between quirky lo-fi pop to hazy electronica and visceral punk, the duo’s sonic adventurism is a hypnotic blend of Air’s kitsch pop and Stereolab’s left field dilettantism. Sure, they occasionally wander into self indulgent, sub – Aphex Twin territory, but the quirky playfulness in tracks like ‘Other Thrills’ tends to endear rather than annoy the listener. In fact, the album’s finest tracks are the gentler, near ambient offerings like the melancholic, mesmerising instrumental ‘Hi Honey, I’m Home’ or the Spacemen 3-esque ‘Books’, when the duo’s cogent pop impact proves irresistible.

An inconsistent album sure, but there’s a refreshing charm and deftness of tough here nonetheless.

David Sue

Two sides of dark, restless electronica mark Merchandise’s 1996 10” debut release as different from the rest.

Deliberately oblique and consciously Factory inspired packaging known only by a record label catalogue number gave an early indication of these mischievous miscreants’ intentions.

A-side Two Minutes After creates a brooding soundscape with overtones of Joy Division and Bark Psychosis.

B-side Microcosm introduces a more dub inspired sound with hypnotic moog melodies suggesting the likes of Orbital.

Anyone looking for an antidote to the day-time TV friendly easy listening musak of recent years should look no further!

Merchandise take their name from a track by American punk band Fugazi who also inspired Cityscape’s do-it-yourself ethic.

Review from CITYlife:

Merchandise kick up a very palatable, post New Order 80s meets 90s synth pop racket. With surprisingly bouncy production this has the feel of the type of theatrical electronic pop that revolutionised the British charts in the 80s paving the way for the house explosion later in that decade. Merchandise sound like they still have one foot in the era but what the hell, this is a bubbly and ultimately forgettable pop delight.

‘I feel I can hail Merchandise as the new kings of electronica talent’ – Paintbox Fanzine