Name: Birling Gap
Brand: The Catenary Wires

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SKEPWAX003LP

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Colour

White

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

1000

Release date

2021-06-18

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

766150396843

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / white

SKEPWAX003CD

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759159696045

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

The Catenary Wires

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

Skep Wax Records

The Catenary Wires formed in 2014 as a duo, consisting of *Amelia Fletcher* and *Rob Pursey*. Since the release of their second album "Til The Morning", the band has expanded to include contributions from Andy Lewis on bass, Fay Hallam on vocals and keyboards, and Ian Button on drums. With a sound reminiscent of bands like Tender Trap and Marine Research, The Catenary Wires have carved out their own unique place in the indie music scene.

Known for their dreamy melodies and introspective lyrics, The Catenary Wires have captured the hearts of fans around the world. Their music evokes a sense of nostalgia while also exploring themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Talulah Gosh and Heavenly, their songs are both heartfelt and catchy.

With influences ranging from The Field Mice to Mozart Estate, The Catenary Wires create music that is both timeless and contemporary. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to their sound, their discography offers something for everyone. From jangly guitars to lush harmonies, each track is crafted with care and attention to detail.

Indie pop comes of age! Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey love pop songs, but pop songs with an edge. With their early bands Talulah Gosh and Heavenly, they were often dismissed by critics of the time as fey or ‘twee’, but this prejudice has since been revised: some of those sweet fizzy songs were about date-rape, and the band were an influential part of the movement that became riot grrrl. 

On their new album as The Catenary Wires, the songs are as strong as ever, full of sweet melody and rich with vocal harmonies. But the tunes are now vehicles for startlingly honest adult concerns: the fractured relationships, anxieties, passions and politics of people who live on an island that’s turning in on itself. Like the Go-Betweens and XTC before them, The Catenary Wires know that pop music can convey dark, sardonic, complex emotions, just as well as it can celebrate teenage angst. 

The album depicts England, not just in its lyrics, but in its music. The Catenary Wires have listened to the songs and stories England has comforted itself with over the decades, and re-imagined them. Canterbury Lanes presents a duetting couple, old now and worn down, but still aspiring to put their folk band back together, hoping to rekindle the idealistic flames of the early 1970s. Mirrorball, fizzy with syn-drums and Casio, presents another couple – middle-aged and unattached, who find unexpected love at a retro 80s disco. In the 70s-flavoured pop of Always on my Mind, love appears again, almost by surprise, conjured up by an old photo in a pile of memorabilia.

The opening track, Face on the Rail Line, is a love song set in the now, full of emotion, but shot through with the paranoia that we all feel, living at a time when we are constantly in contact, but rarely communicate the truth. The last two songs on the album, Like the Rain, and The Overview Effect, are anxious romances, set in a fragile world. 

The Catenary Wires are now a five-piece band. The other members have impressive musical pedigrees of their own. Fay Hallam was in Makin’ Time, and now releases records in her own name. Andy Lewis played bass in the Weller Band, and has more recently worked with Louis Phillippe and Judy Dyble. Ian Button was in Thrashing Doves and Death in Vegas. These talented musicians elevate the songs, taking the arrangements onto another level.

Birling Gap

Music GB

Buy The Catenary Wires - Birling Gap (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.