Artists
Biography
Beggars Banquet is excited to announce that iLiKETRAiNS will be releasing their debut full-length album on October 23rd. Continuing their trademark obsession with past characters and events, Elegies To Lessons Learnt charts a series of tragic episodes in history. The songs have a perfectly slow and intense build and end in a wall of beautiful sound.
iLiKETRAiNS is a 5-piece from Leeds consisting of Dave Martin (guitar and vocals), Guy Bannister (guitar, rhodes and synths), Alistair Bowls (bass), Ashley Dean (cornet and visuals), and Simon Fogal (drums).
Their sound is an amalgam of carefully structured, majestic melodies and huge instrumental patterns, set to a narrative of past historical figures. Though history may seem an unlikely 'rock' topic, iLiKETRAiNS succeed thoroughly in bringing past into present via incredible, rousing tales of courage and failure set against beautiful, often monstrous musical pieces.
iLiKETRAiNS released their first two singles at the end of 2005 to critical acclaim. However, it was their stunning mini-album Progress Reform that truly captured the media's attention and propelled them into cult status. Their spine tingling songs have no intention to compete with pop’s ambitions and have hence won them glowing press reviews and a dedicated following from across the continent. They have been covered widely in publications ranging from the NME to the Financial Times, and their spectacular show at The Beggars Group showcase at SXSW this year blew minds and was one of the surprises of the festival. An extensive network of fan club members called RAiLCARD HOLDERS help spread word of these compelling history lessons across the UK, overseas into Europe and now America. iLiKETRAiNS have performed at major European festivals and made personal appearances at regional railway events; they have even been mentioned in the House of Commons and given talks at universities.
Where the mini-album Progress, Reform concerned itself with a number of individual stories, the new album is more global in scope. It attempts to illustrate how history repeats itself, and how the human race fails to learn from its mistakes. Elegies To Lessons Learnt takes on the Great Fire of London in “25 Sins”, an ill-fated round the world yachtsman in “The Deception”, the only British prime minister ever to be assassinated in “Spencer Perceval”, and the Salem Witch Trials in “We Go Hunting”. Other songs cover massacre, the ‘iron curtain’, the plague and madness. You can learn a lot from an iLiKETRAiNS album!
Morose indeed, and conveyed with such supreme, spine-tingling, rousing melody and compelling instrumentation that this album will win hearts and minds all over the world.
Recorded in an old chapel in Leeds, the album was mixed with the help of Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Hope Of The States), and self-produced.
iLiKETRAiNS is a 5-piece from Leeds consisting of Dave Martin (guitar and vocals), Guy Bannister (guitar, rhodes and synths), Alistair Bowls (bass), Ashley Dean (cornet and visuals), and Simon Fogal (drums).
Their sound is an amalgam of carefully structured, majestic melodies and huge instrumental patterns, set to a narrative of past historical figures. Though history may seem an unlikely 'rock' topic, iLiKETRAiNS succeed thoroughly in bringing past into present via incredible, rousing tales of courage and failure set against beautiful, often monstrous musical pieces.
iLiKETRAiNS released their first two singles at the end of 2005 to critical acclaim. However, it was their stunning mini-album Progress Reform that truly captured the media's attention and propelled them into cult status. Their spine tingling songs have no intention to compete with pop’s ambitions and have hence won them glowing press reviews and a dedicated following from across the continent. They have been covered widely in publications ranging from the NME to the Financial Times, and their spectacular show at The Beggars Group showcase at SXSW this year blew minds and was one of the surprises of the festival. An extensive network of fan club members called RAiLCARD HOLDERS help spread word of these compelling history lessons across the UK, overseas into Europe and now America. iLiKETRAiNS have performed at major European festivals and made personal appearances at regional railway events; they have even been mentioned in the House of Commons and given talks at universities.
Where the mini-album Progress, Reform concerned itself with a number of individual stories, the new album is more global in scope. It attempts to illustrate how history repeats itself, and how the human race fails to learn from its mistakes. Elegies To Lessons Learnt takes on the Great Fire of London in “25 Sins”, an ill-fated round the world yachtsman in “The Deception”, the only British prime minister ever to be assassinated in “Spencer Perceval”, and the Salem Witch Trials in “We Go Hunting”. Other songs cover massacre, the ‘iron curtain’, the plague and madness. You can learn a lot from an iLiKETRAiNS album!
Morose indeed, and conveyed with such supreme, spine-tingling, rousing melody and compelling instrumentation that this album will win hearts and minds all over the world.
Recorded in an old chapel in Leeds, the album was mixed with the help of Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Hope Of The States), and self-produced.