Cranes

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Cranes
Cranes (2004)
Cranes (2004)
General information
Genre (s) Independent
founding 1985
Website www.cranes-fan.com
Founding members
singing
 Alison Shaw
Instruments
 Jim Shaw
Current occupation
singing
 Alison Shaw
Guitar, keyboard
 Jim Shaw
bass
 Ben Baxter
Guitar, keyboard
 Paul Smith
Drums
 Jon Callendar
former members
Guitar, bass, keyboard
Mark Francombe
Guitar, bass, keyboard
 Matt Cope
Drums
 Manu Ros

Cranes are a British independent band founded in 1985 by siblings Jim and Alison Shaw in Portsmouth .

history

In 1986 they released their debut album Fuse, recorded by two, on compact cassette and shortly afterwards recorded Self-Non-Self . For their first appearance in 1987, the siblings recruited guest musicians from their circle of friends. This way of working determined the work of Cranes for years: Jim (instruments) and Alison (vocals) recorded the albums, and other musicians only joined them for concerts. Until 1994 these were Mark Francombe and Matt Cope on guitars, bass and keyboards; both are also listed as band members on the album covers.

They became internationally known in 1992 when they were invited by The Cure to act as the opening act for the European dates of their Wish tour. The chemistry between the two bands developed so positively during this tour that The Cure offered them to open the entire World Tour. Years later, the relative frequency of Cure T-shirts at Cranes concerts testifies to the advertising effect of this tour. Cranes symbolically thanked them with their next album: The title Forever is also that of an unreleased Cure track (The Cure often played it at concerts, especially in the early 80s). In 2002, 2004 and 2005 Cranes were repeatedly engaged by The Cure as opening act for large open-air concerts.

Big changes took place in the late 1990s. With La tragédie d' Oreste et Électre , Cranes ' most experimental concept album to date was released in 1996 : Alison speaks texts from Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Mouches ( The Flies ) over seven symphonic-synthetic compositions by Jim . The album was only released in a limited edition and was never performed live. Matt Cope left the band at this point, Jim Shaw then switched from drums to guitar for concerts (a relatively rare development in bands), and Cranes got their first "real drummer" with Manu Ros. Consequently, Population 4 (1997) was the first Cranes album to be recorded as a "real band". At the same time, however, the contract with their label Dedicated expired (hence the symptomatic farewell quasi-best-of release EP Collection in their discography). In retrospect, Jim and Alison Shaw reported in interviews that their Cranes project was nearly finished in 1997; the band was falling apart, financially ruined and at odds with their management over it. There have been offers from major major labels to sign the band. They just found their condition to publish music suitable for radio in the future out of the question. The decision of whether to dissolve or start their own label was linked to the successful publication of Til the stars shine (1998), a hand-bound booklet with Alison's texts, which could only be ordered directly from the band via the website. Encouraged by the fact that this text band sold out very quickly, they founded the label dadaphonic , on which they have been releasing their own albums since 2001.

After only a few appearances in Mexico and Italy in recent years, Cranes played their first concerts in Germany again in the summer of 2004 after a break of eight years. Jon Callendar (drums), Paul Smith (keyboards and guitar) and Ben Baxter (bass) have been part of the permanent cast since 2001.

style

Allmusic classifies the band's music as "Trance Pop" and Shoegaze . The band itself accepts the categorization of their music as dream pop and sees elements of post-rock on the album Particles and Waves .

Discography

  • 1986: Fuse
  • 1989: Self-Non-Self (Bite Back)
  • 1991: Wings of Joy ( Dedicated )
  • 1993: Forever (Dedicated)
  • 1993: Forever Remixes
  • 1994: Loved (Dedicated)
  • 1996: La tragédie d'Oreste et Électre (Dedicated)
  • 1997: Population 4 (Dedicated)
  • 1997: EP Collection, Vol. 1 & 2
  • 2001: Future Songs (Dadaphonic)
  • 2003: Live in Italy (Dadaphonic)
  • 2004: Particles and Waves (Dadaphonic)
  • 2008: Cranes (Dadaphonic)

bibliography

  • Til the stars shine (lyrics by Alison Shaw, 1998)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b PennyBlackMusic.co.uk: Interview with Alison Shaw. Retrieved August 17, 2019 .
  2. ^ Allmusic.com: Cranes: Biography. Retrieved August 17, 2019 .