Deaf Club
London, England, United Kingdom | INDIE
Music
Press
Deaf Club put their debut digital EP 'Lull' charms are still holding strong. DC recall Beach House if they' grown up on Glasgow's Chemikal Underground label. - NME
The brooding atmospheres and rising tensions that run deep through their songs are the sounds of a band packed with potential and huge ambition. Take a glimpse inside their world; we get the feeling this is just the start. - Abeano
The band's control of tension/release has marked them out as a mature, fully formed new unit. Not quite shoegaze, Deaf Club layer sound upon sound to blur their songwriting into an hallucinatory experience. - Clash
Deaf Club are a joy to come across because good versions of this world of music are particularly difficult to come by… and we reckon they'd slay live as well. - Rockfeedback
Deaf Club match the pastoral, widescreen guitar effects of shoegaze with something deeply arresting. Debut EP 'Lull' emerged earlier this year, and it was clear that the five piece were weighed down with potential. - Clash Magazine
Discography
Lull (EP) - June 2011
Sunday / Mirrors (Single) - Feb 2012
Moving Still (Single) - July 2012
Photos
Bio
Polly Mackey, vocals/guitar
Paul Bates, bass
Jac Roberts, guitar
Sian Rosier, keyboards
Tom Ryan, drums
Since forming in 2010, British five-piece Deaf Club have courted the affections of the British music industry with a rare, organic elegance.
Their self-released digital EP of 2011, Lull, was spearheaded by the track ‘Hana’ – which subsequently attracted the attention of radio DJs and critics alike. Abeano and Rockfeedback were among the first sites to write about the band’s potential. And many scribes have since followed suit.
Lull was followed in early 2012 by a double-A-side single, ‘Sunday’/‘Mirrors’. Between these releases the band recorded a BBC Introducing session for Jen Long, supported 2:54 and set out on their own headline dates. So impressed was Long by the band that she put out ‘Sunday’/‘Mirrors’ on her Kissability imprint, on a limited-edition cassette also housing the four Lull tracks. It sold out in a heartbeat.
In July, Deaf Club released another single, this time through the venerable Too Pure stable, as part of the label’s Singles Club series. ‘Moving Still’ earned itself plays across Radio 1, 6 Music, Amazing Radio, Xfm and further afield; and backed by the track ‘Lights’, the single scored impressive reviews on Clash and Drowned in Sound.
‘Moving Still’ showcases Deaf Club’s becoming-signature sound – bellowing guitars and yearning vocals, underpinned by driving percussion and detailed textures – and represents the latest progression of a group that refuses to rest on any laurels. With the acclaim to have come their way so far achieved without a concentrated campaign to engage with the media, it’s evident that this band’s material is doing all the talking, circumventing the ‘hard sell’.
Deaf Club arrive at the Reading and Leeds festivals, playing the BBC Introducing Stage, after a year-so-far of considerable live activity. The band called at The Great Escape and Dot to Dot, and completed a sizeable run of shows in May. They played a rapturously received single launch set to a packed Old Blue Last crowd in July. MusicOMH noted that their live set “leaves you wanting more”; while The Guardian’s Paul Lester commented that they’re “a band packed with potential and huge ambition”.
As the final months of 2012 loom, these ambitions are being realised, and some. With new material due before the year is through, and yet more in early 2013, Deaf Club are confidently staking their claim to be one of the UK’s most promising new bands.
“Few new bands induce goosebumps in the way that Deaf Club do. The room is full of nodding heads. Among the glut of fresh acts, they’re special.” (The Guardian)
“Deaf Club layer sound upon sound to blur their songwriting into a hallucinatory experience… They move in unexpected directions which demonstrate a real bravery.” (Clash)
“Their enchanting atmospherics are a summer’s night bus, with dawn shimmering through its window’s condensed smears of urban debauchery… Their shy melodies emerge from the shadows for a boogie without losing face.” (The Independent)
“Inhabited by spectral vocals that tremble with vertigo, hoisted skywards by possessed ravens and fibre-optic guitars, ‘Moving Still’ is a right bloody gem of a song.” (Drowned in Sound)
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