Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 18:37:30 -0700 From: Jeff Keibel (redshift@INTERLOG.COM) Subject: Lamb sham LAMB Lamb Fontana Tentative Instore Date: September 25 File under: Trip-hop * Being touted as the Portishead of drum 'n' bass, Lamb are a Manchester-based duo - Louise Rhodes & Andrew Barlow * The duo's first two EPs - "Cotton Wool" (complete with remixes from Fila Brazillia & A Guy Called Gerald) & "Gold"- were not only critically acclaimed & collectors' items - but made Lamb the most talked about new band in England - and the buzz is starting to translate to North America. The album features a hidden track - the Fila Brazillia remix of "Cotton Wool" CD 532 968-2 Track Listing Lusty / God Bless / Cottonwool / Trans Fatty Acid / Zero / Merge / Gold (original) / Closer / Gorecki / Feel Jeff Keibel Toronto, ON CANADA redshift@interlog.com Date: Sun, 4 May 1997 05:14:29 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: Lamb LAMB Lamb Fontana/Mercury British duo Lamb is the result of a true meeting of the minds between vocalist Louise Rhodes and musical technician Andrew Barlow. The physical impact of Barlow's challenging breakbeats and sexy hiphop undercurrents provides the body of movement. Unsettling interludes, like "Zero" with only unnerving strings, and "Merge" with rapidly curling trumpets show the duo are intent on chasing the perfect distillation of a moment and not the perfect dancefloor filler. Rhodes' deep, quivering vocals take their own course and with her heartfelt lyrics create an emotional dimension that is intense and pure. A passionate nexus of bouncing stereo sounds, best heard coming down through headphones, is the joyous result. A brilliant upside to the usually dark British electronic explorations. - Lauren Zoric **** -- LAMB Building On A Club Vibe The haunting sound of Cotton Wool by Lamb echoing throughout the clubs at the start of the year heralded the arrival of an exciting new UK group. The tune, a classic mix of drum and bass and jazz, became a DJ staple, going from underground favourite to nationwide club anthem. Along with the follow-up single Gold, it has helped the two-piece, Manchester-based Lamb to make a name for themselves. Both tracks demonstrate the strong and original songwriting skills and vocals of Louise Rhodes, allied to a progressive dance production by Andrew Barlow. The group were signed last year, after Fontana A&R manager Richard O'Donovan was put on to them by a Mercury colleague at L'Attitude. "It was a down time last year. No tips were coming through, so I asked around and Simon Bushell at L'Attitude put me on to Louise," he says. After speaking with the singer on the phone, O'Donovan drove to Manchester and met the pair, before he had even heard any tracks. The group were sceptical about O'Donovan's interest, but the meeting and playback session proved fruitful. "Three of the first four songs I heard I thought were singles. They were very convincing as people and I could see they worked well together," says O'Donovan. And, within a few weeks, with no A&R competition to muddy their thinking, Lamb committed to Fontana. "It was possibly the quickest deal I've ever done," O'Donnell adds. "As an A&R, I've guided them by telling them my opinion but I tend to favour bands producing themselves." Remixing has been a notable part of the Lamb project. At a time when the practice is so prevalent, among a wide variety of genres, the identity of a group can be defined as much by the remixers they choose as the tone of their original sound. And there's no doubting the quality of the remixers picked to handle Lamb - Mr Scruff, Autechre and Fila Brazilia are just some of the cutting edge names who have contributed. "I think the record company were a bit scared of the people we were choosing, but we agreed beforehand that we didn't want to use name remixers," says Rhodes. Lamb formed at the start of 1994 when Rhodes met Barlow, a 21-year-old who had just returned to the UK after attending high school in Philadelphia for three and a half years. Barlow had come back to take a sound engineering course in Manchester but found himself working for So What management, eventually becoming their in-house remixer. Rhodes, the daughter of a folk singer, was introduced to Barlow through a mutual friend when she was looking for someone to work with. "We spoke on the phone and the first thing Andy asked me was 'are you good looking?'. "We liked what each other had to offer and started working from scratch. We have a lot of different influences and I think that's what's good about us. I like jazz and folk, Andy's into a lot of hip hop. It's a good cross-pollination of styles." After several months of writing, the pair found that they had something special, and their luck continued with O'Donovan's unsolicited interest. But the release and subsequent success of Cotton Wool caught the duo somewhat off guard. "It was a bit unexpected and has put a bit of pressure on, but they seem to be handling it," says O'Donovan. Fontana is now hoping to break the group on a wider scale. Lamb are making their live debut later this month, which should help their cause, as should the group's burgeoning reputation as remixers. Their recent remix of a track for Liverpool guitar band Space hints at the direction they might follow - towards that indie dance high ground variously occupied by Primal Scream, The Chemical Brothers, Tricky and Portishead. "I see them as an album act initially, there's no rush for them to have a hit single but, ultimately, I see them being a whole lot more," says O'Donovan. The album, scheduled for release in late June (in the US, already out in the UK and other territories), should be one of the first highlights of the summer. - Jake Barnes -- LAMB Lamb Fontana/Mercury Trying to put music into words often presents a difficult scenario, and in the case of the Manchester based duo, Lamb, their music strives to defy categorization. Lyrics of love and loss meet with untempered beats, drum and bass courts with jazz and lust to produce a form of "future bebop." This is music where conflicting forms battle and find a greater peace. Tracklisting: 1. Lusty 2. God Bless 3. Cotton Wool 4. Trans Fatty Acid 5. Zero 6. Merge 7. Gold 8. Closer 9. Gorecki 10. Feela Vocalist Louise Rhodes grew up singing, breast fed on hippie singer song writers at her mother's knee. "My mum was a folk singer," she explains, "so from an early age I was going to clubs and festivals with her and getting up to sing too." However, her musical career didn't follow the path laid out by these early beginnings. Rhodes found herself drawn towards hip hop and soul, but was uncomfortable setting her songs in these contexts, so she took a step sideways into music and fashion photography. Andy's first experience with drums was around the age of nine in a marching band, and from then on, rhythm was a passion. Teenage years spent in Philadelphia compounded his love of hip-hop beats and returning to Britain during the second 'Summer of Love' added to a techno tinge to the equation. In 1993 he arrived in Manchester for a sound engineering course but soon found himself frustrated by the confines that a formal technical education placed on his creativity. A year later he was offered a job in a Manchester studio and found his que to move on. So why should two such opposites meet? Despite enjoying her work in photography, Louise continued to feel that her creativity was being confined. "I didn't know what I wanted!," she says, "but I did know what I didnšt want and that was to sing nice songs with a guitar and be another singer-songwriter. Music has to move on and embrace new forms." Then she heard a song on pirate radio; an early breakbeat track called "Love Is All We Need" (by Peter Bouncer) and that one number somehow ignited a spark. Andy didn't want a singer. "I was always put off in hip hop when the rapping started," he says, "it was always the beats that moved me." He simply enjoyed "losing it" with his mates on the techno scene, and there was no call for vocals in his musical menu. Besides, he was busy engineeringand co-producing remixes with DJšs as a 'day job' while writing his own material under the name of 'the Hipoptimist'. Then out of the blue, he got a phone call from a complete stranger asking if he'd consider working with her on some ideas. The rest, as they say, is history. Two worlds collided and formed Lamb. "We're like Yin and Yang," Lou says, "two very opposite entities but with little dots of each in the other." Ask Andy to describe their sound and he'll say evasively: "it's like ten points on a compass all pointing in different directions." This is music where contradiction is of the essence; where conflict finds a greater peace and space, and in turn, produces intensity. Lamb is Louise Rhodes and Andrew Barlow. - Mercury press bio excerpt Jeff Keibel Scarborough, Ontario CANADA e mail: redshift@interlog.com Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 09:30:31 +0000 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Global Comms, Lamb, Muses Found the Lamb album dirt cheap in a sale - can't remember whether this list or Pure-Impure has been carrying raves about it. My verdict - it's cack. Dolores Cranberry goes jungle/hip-hop, I can see why the record company might love it but it's not going to be occupying my CD player very often.