NEW YORK (By Alison Tarnofsky/ Astralwerks) - It only takes a few seconds of "Enemies Like This," the title track to
Radio 4's new album (out now), to realize that the Brooklyn-based band has returned with all cylinders fired up and with a rejuvenated sense of purpose: they've streamlined and stretched their sound, cut the fat, trimmed the filler, and focused on the meat that makes the music, not the spices that can bury it. Enemies Like This is the album long awaited by all those who know that, up to now,
Radio 4's strongest impression has been made from the stage.
In fact, the group was determined to keep the sound live when returning to the studio. Produced by Jagz Kooner, Enemies Like This is ten songs and 43 minutes long – like albums used to be back when they were spread over two sides of vinyl and there was no space to bury your mistakes. As much as these ten songs are devoid of filler, they're also thrillingly diverse.
Radio 4 set out its stall in 2000 with a low-budget debut indie album, The New Song And Dance; the follow-up, Gotham! (2002), produced by the DFA duo, found them hitting musical stride in a post 9/11 milieu wherein new New York bands were the toast of a global indie-rock post-punk funk-off dance floor. The trio expanded via percussion and keyboards for its third album (Stealing Of A Nation, 2004), from which the songs "Party Crashers," "State Of Alert"' and "Absolute Affirmation" all served to further raise the group's profile. Since then, the group have changed guitarists, signed to Astralwerks for the world, toured with The Libertines, Gang Of Four and The Raveonettes, and put in rousing festival appearances from Coachella in California to Homelands in Britain and Benicassim in Spain.
- Thomas D'Arcy—the solo mastermind behind Small Sins, marches to the beat of his own drum machine. That's what he discovered after spending the better chunk of a decade in bands percolating around the indie-rock scene of his Canada hometown. By Christmas 2004, D'Arcy found his band broken up and himself in the midst of a 'mid-twenties crisis.' 'Music had become work, yet I still felt like I should be getting to work on something,' D'Arcy says.
And get to work he did. D'Arcy retreated alone to the basement of his childhood home determined to create sounds that reflected the passion that led him to music in the first place. After nearly a year of woodshedding, D'Arcy fulfilled his goal, emerging with his debut album, Small Sins. A masterpiece of heartfelt electro chamber-pop, Small Sins bubbles with gorgeously layered harmonies, synth gurgles, and hook-filled tales of love lost and found as honest and bracing as the Canadian winter.
Since finishing the album, D'Arcy has put together a live unit featuring guitarist Steve Krecklo, keyboardist Todor Kobakov, drummer Brent Follett, and keyboardist/handclapper Kevin Hilliard ('How can you not have fun listening to handclaps?' D'Arcy notes). Small Sins live show has evolved into a different beast from D'Arcy's more nuanced solo recordings: onstage, the band wears all white costumes and memorably amps up the material with more volume and thrust.
Tying everything together, Radio 4 will remix of Small Sins' "Stay" and Small Sins will remix Radio 4's "Enemies Like This."
Don't miss Small Sins supporting Radio 4 on the following dates:
6/09 Dallas - Gypsy Tea Room
6/10 Austin - The Parish Room
6/12 Phoenix - Rhythm Room
6/13 San Diego – Casbah
6/15 Pomona, CA - Glass House
6/16 Los Angeles - Troubadour
6/17 San Francisco - The Independent
6/19 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
6/20 Seattle - Neumo's
6/23 Minneapolis - Triple Rock Social
6/24 Chicago – Double Door
6/25 Cincinnati– Desdemona Festival
6/27 Baltimore – Sonar
6/28 Philadelphia – North Star
6/29 Boston – Avalon (Radio 4 Only)
7/06 NYC – Bowery Ballroom
