Issue 44 / May 2014

12
Bido Lito! May 2014
First
Glossom
Of Spring
Words: Laurie Cheeseman / @lauriecheeseman
Design: Hannah Cassidy / hannahcassidycreative.tumblr.com
Spring is in full bloom, you can feel it in the air; it’s possible
to venture outside for the first time in months without that third
jumper, the day lasts longer than four hours and something in the
air makes it feel different. It’s a perfect day then to meet up with
those effervescent new kids on the block GLOSSOM, in the prime
first-date territory of Leaf.
It’s been a while since Glossom’s first date, when Anthony
Kastelanides (Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard) hunted down Gareth
Dawson (Drums) in town to muck about with some instruments
and watch the Fugazi documentary Instrument. Despite having
been together only a matter of months, and played only a
precious clutch of shows since these precocious beginnings, the
band have accrued a lot of love and hype from around the city.
And rightly so, we feel.
Having initially come together as a funk/soul group, Glossom’s
brassy, outré stylings have seen them become the go-to band as
support on some of the Liverpool gigs at the jazzier end of the
indie spectrum of late. As such, this has seen them share bills
with some of the city’s more forward-thinking instrumentalists
and forge an alliance with them. One question this prompts is
whether or not there really is a collection of home-grown, likeminded
bands in Liverpool right now, or if ‘scenes’ are now a thing
of the past due to the long-reaching tentacles of the internet. “I
mean, there’s not much of a scene in terms of actual sound or
conventions to get pigeonholed by, but there does seem to be
a few of us with a similar ethos, a big collaborative element,”
Alex Cottrell (Guitar, Vocals) explains. “Other groups like Harlequin
Dynamite Marching Band use brass too and sound like there’s no
bidolito.co.uk
real band leader but other than that there’s not much in the way
of a ‘classic’ scene, not like 90s Seattle or anything. It’s just that
there are now a few groups whose musical ideas marry up even
if their sounds don’t.”
Blending in superbly with math rock legends Joan Of Arc and
Tera Melos, as well as finding their niche alongside Southern
and VEYU at everisland’s Aquaria behemoth, shows the flexibility
that Glossom’s sound affords them. “It’s been really hard to find
shows to fit in with,” admits Gareth Elliot (Bass), “but at the ones
we have, we’ve seen some gems we’d never have come across
otherwise. Bands like Cleft, for example.” The size of crowd they
have played to hasn't mattered, as praise has followed them
around at every juncture. And with such a billowing, spacious
and damn captivating sound, it’s not hard to see why. Taking
classic goth-era 4AD stable’s cavernous sound, Can’s funk-laden
drive and Fridge’s jazzy looseness, whilst sounding nothing like
any of these, Glossom mine their own path entirely – especially
when it comes to You Did It Yourself, their reimagining of an
unreleased Arthur Russell track. “It is something we just caught
snatches of in a documentary [Wild Combination]; we just sort of
expanded it and messed with it over the past few months so all
that’s left really are some of the lyrics,” explains Anthony. “We’re
all represented in the sound, we all bring our own thing to it: like
folk and world has been a big thing for me; Alex brings in some
of his classical arrangements; Gaz [Dawson] brings in a bit of jazz.
We’re more than the amorphous sum of our influences.”
Glossom’s brass section of tenor sax (James Orrin), trumpet
(Benedict Ewan Sisulu Tweedie) and alto sax (Josh Philip) is, in
Anthony’s opinion, what gives the band that extra edge. “I was
reading Thom Yorke’s biography a while ago and they used horns
in his first band as extra ammo, and that gives us that added
incentive.” Later on, Alex expounds on this point further: “It makes
it so much more fun to arrange when there is that added element
[of brass]; there is more texture and melody to play with.” It’s a
gamble that many bands wouldn’t make, but the more obviously
jazzy textures it lends the music give both the audience and
the band more incentive to just have fun. Fun is a thing many
bands forget to have, especially when they concentrate so hard
on getting their small collection of songs out to the audience
with technical perfection. As gifted as Glossom undoubtedly are
– there are few groups out there in Liverpool with the chops they
have – it’s the soul of their small collection of songs that really
comes across as the most important thing.
“It takes a while to write a song, especially now we’ve been
concentrating on practising for gigs instead of locking ourselves
away to get stuff written. We’d quite like to explore vocal delivery
a bit more but we can’t just slap random lyrics in; that’s why most
of our material is instrumental,” Anthony muses. They’re cautious
not to go down the Pavement route of delivering piles of nonsequiturs,
most simply because they know it’s not their forte. But
still, Gareth E reckons that more has to come from them soon, to
make the most of their recent exposure. “Playing live has given us
a bit of a kick. We’ve never sounded as good as when we’ve played
The Kazimier but we need to take a step back, capitalise on our
press.” Nonetheless, it’s so refreshing to see a band that would
rather have a clutch of genuinely top-dollar songs rather than flood
us with a bunch of half-baked ideas. And if Glossom’s formative
steps are anything to go by this may take some time, but you sense
it would be worth the wait. Just don’t go into hibernation for too
long lads; gigs in Liverpool won’t be the same without you.
glossom.bandcamp.com