Using organic sounds, sample loops, guitar effects, and well-crafted keys complete with a production fit for electronic music, the Ex-Libras bring a strong, moving piece of work to the ears with their new LP Suite(s). Being the group’s first release (after a marathon 16 shows as of this writing), it has already crashed open the gates of the electronic alternative scene to breath new life into this oft-overplayed genre.

The three piece band from London shows obvious influences from alternative, electronic, and ambient music. The sounds on Suite(s) seem at first familiar, though with more in-depth study they yield a great deal more complexity. Ross Kenning’s organic drums are tight and warm, and present a sound that is at once central but not the only focus. The keyboards, tickled by Keiran Nagi, are bright and strong.  Ambient plinking on the more atmospheric tracks nicely accent the drums and provide an excellent, delicate melody. Amit Sharma’s guitars incorporate sound effects and distortion with perfect placement and beautiful intensity. His heart-wrenching vocals are thin, breathy, urgent, and impatient.

The sound of Suite(s), to reference other bands, can be placed vocally with the fervor of Radiohead and the range of (old) U2. Musically, the melodies bring to mind a touch of Idlewild and even Portishead (!). At its most forceful, the album’s overall drive  invokes …and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

A perfect example of this description is the 8+ minute “Phat Knickers.” Starting ambient and a bit bouncy, it conjures the sounds of Portishead’s LP Dummy. Twisty guitar noises and trills, ethereal keyboards, and drums with a definite boom – it stirs the senses quickly. The sound gradually grows and speeds up, building in tension and clipping in the production by the close of the track.

The boys in the band took time to answer a few questions.

Link:

Official Site: http://www.exlibras.co.uk/home.html
See their live performance video: http://vimeo.com/6858031
Check the Radar single out: http://www.exlibras.co.uk/player.html
Limited edition album purchase here: http://exlibras.bigcartel.com/ or digitally here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/suite-s/id331425768

Your sound is new, fresh, and urgent. You combine ambient keys and loops with guitar effects, well-placed vocals and solid drumming – where did this come from? What inspired you three musically to get to the point of releasing your new LP Suite(s)?

Hello Zaptown – thanks for the kind words. We started out by converting a disused shed into our own permanent rehearsal and recording space. It’s cramped but we like it. This is where we wrote and recorded ‘Suite(s)’. When we wrote the songs, we didn’t know how things would turn out – would they lead to a couple of EPs or an LP or simply rough demo’s to see if the insane idea that we could do it ourselves would actually work. So everything was an experiment, an opportunity to do things our own way on our own creative terms and whim. The reason for doing the recordings was initially a way for us to see were we were, as a band at that time. It just so happened that we made the right mistakes and came out with something we felt confident (sorta’) about showing to other people.

The Sound on Suite(s) is big while not becoming out of control. How long did it take to record and how did it wind up at the final sound? How was the recording and production process?

The recordings took place in 2 sessions, each lasting a little over a week. As we had to fit it around/into our working schedule, this meant evenings after work. We did it all live, because that meant we could mix it right away. The vocals were done a little after at Ross’ house, along with what little overdubs we felt would help make the recordings sound better. We tried going for big overdubs using lots of different instruments – for shits and giggles – but we rejected that idea fairly early on. For this record, the excitement came from knowing that this was really a record of us trying to capture that ‘energy’ of a live performance and translate that through the recorded medium. Perhaps its ‘sound’ comes from that combination of the raw nature of live recording, and the very systematic, clock in clock out, attitude we were forced to approach it in?

As an artist, you want to be as successful as possible, to create works and never have to go back to a shit job if possible. That said, have you three established any limits to this project? Do you see this as a long-term project? Do any of you have side projects aside from Ex-Libras?

Funnily enough, we set a silent time frame on the band. We would do this for ‘x’ amount of time, and if we felt it wasn’t progressing in the way that we wanted by ‘x’, we would simply call it day then and there. I’d love to tell you what ‘x’ amount of time is, and whether we’re about to reach it or have passed it, but then that would ruin it wouldn’t it?

Side-projects. We all do music in some capacity, individually. Most of it (all band members numerous projects) can be found on myspace. We can’t help but write music, so if we’re not doing Ex Libras, we’re working on other things of a musical nature. But we’re investing emotionally, into Ex Libras now and that’s sort of a scary prospect, I guess. I think that means we do see Ex Libras as a long-term project. There isn’t a shortage of ideas just yet.

What are your musical references? When you come up with music to play and practice and write, where do you draw from? Do you rely on what/who you’ve heard before and play off that, or does it all just come to you?

All of our songs come from jams. There isn’t a piece that has come pre-prepared. We like to go in, loosen up, and have fun with noise. I’m sure we’re influenced by everything: from our favourite records, to the last ‘sound’ we heard before we closed the door to our rehearsal room, plugged in and turned the volume up. We’re in a constant state of reaction, to each other, so what we play starts out as improv.

We try to explore the different grooves in different genres. I don’t think we’ll ever stick to a ‘style’ just yet. There is just so much music out there that we enjoy and feel passionate about. We might suggest a starting point and then create our own interpretation of it. As a rule, we try not to reference things we’ve heard done before. But I’m sure we can be proven guilty for doing just that. But it’s never our intention. We are very much of the school of thought – innovate, don’t imitate. But that’s a hard school to get into.

How much pre-planning is required for your live shows – how much time is taken to record loops or programming effects?

We spend a lot of time changing and rehearsing our sets. What we try to do, when we play live, is no silence, just continuous sounds. We take the time to figure out how to ‘blend’ the songs in our set together so it feels like one continuous piece of music, and that’s aided by the loops we make. All our loops are live and improvised then and there on the night. We don’t pre-program them. They are very much the product of the evening and as a result, the loops are always different each night and we really like that aspect of it.

Depending on distance traveled, stage show, and merchandise, etc., some bands need larger or smaller crews to make everything run smooth- what is the size of the crew you play out with or do you do it all yourselves?

We do it all ourselves. No matter where go.

Many bands that play out, especially when they first start up, play shows as often as possible, and then later are able to afford a more “selective” approach to venues. Where are do the Ex-Libras currently stand in this context? How has having artist representation changed things for the band?

Even before the record was made, we were very selective about where we’d play and how often. We still stick to that model because it’s what makes sense for us. We didn’t want to play and play and play because the only gigs we’d get were in London and you can totally ‘overplay’ London. Since we all came together after being in various other bands, we were familiar with the circuit and decided very early on that we would keep ourselves to ourselves. Thanks to the release, we’ve had a chance to organise a little tour and we had a handful of dates in other cities in the UK. And this is all really a conscious choice to move away from playing in London. I know it sounds bizarre, because we love where we’re from and there’s no place quite like it. If the right gig comes up in London, we’ll play it but we’ve got horizons we want to explore first, new people to meet, other music to experience.

We made the record ourselves, we manage the band ourselves, we did the video ourselves, we’ve (literally) built this band from the ground up, but it was only until A Badge Of Friendship came along and started working our PR that things have stepped-up a notch. They’ve really helped us with the single, the LP, gigs, and even getting us wider radio. They’ve been really supportive of what we’re doing and we can talk through anything with them. Coming from such a private DIY place, it was a little hard to let someone else in, but with ABoF it’s been really easy. They’ve opened-up our world a little bit more and this means that we can play more often in new places – which is what we wanted to do with this band.

How often do you play out, and what venues do you prefer in terms of atmosphere, other bands to play with, and hall size? What would be your individual preferred band to share a stage with at this point and why?

So far we’ve played 16 shows. EVER! That’s not a lot. And most of them have been out of our hometown. We talk about the differences in venues between ourselves a bit too. Small venues give you that sense of intimacy and urgency. There is the sweat, the chaos, that ‘something’ that makes the improvised moments all the more spontaneous and special – like we’ve all stumbled into secret gathering. Then, there are the large venues and they are a whole different beast. There’s space to move around on-stage, and when its silent, its pin-drop silent. In these spaces we can allow ourselves to enjoy the more expansive, cinematic elements of our songs.

We all agree we’d love to do festivals. The space that festivals command is amazing. There are intense moments, but we do have these grand subtle moments that are crying to be played into the open air.

But only 16 gigs… This is something we’ve already started to rectify. In early 2010, we’ve got a short stint in Europe with ‘Gin Panic’ – they make BIG sounds and long devastating grooves. That’s followed by a series of dates back up to the North of the UK. We’re looking forward to possibly lining up some festival dates for 2010. Maybe by the end of next year, we’ll have a better sense of the type of venue we’d fit into, but right now, we’re try them all – big, small, wide, tall, room, hall, square, ball…?

Now that Suite(s) has been released, do you already have plans for the next release? How does the new material sound at this point? Is it a continuation from Suite(s) or is it a departure?

There are new tracks being written that already sound like steps forward from where we are now. Even though they were written off the back of finishing the LP, so they have that lucid connection with ‘Suite(s)’, we’re learning new techniques which are taking the songs into new territories. We want to tackle it differently too. Change how we record it, the method, the engineering, the production. I think it’s important for us to improve on our sound on record, continue to experiment and have even more fun than we did last time. We’re immensely proud of ‘Suite(s)’ and there isn’t any expectation placed on what the new release should be, so it could be anything.

On a lighter note, you are likely aware that an international upheaval has erupted over the title of the last track on your Suite(s) called “19:04.” The title of the track implies a 19-minute song, when in fact it only lasts just over 8 minutes. In order to quiet the unrest, how do you explain the discrepancy? How do you plan on addressing the damage you may have done to the international community? Is there a conspiracy we should know about?

Hands down, best question we’ve been asked about ‘Suite(s)’!

First and foremost, we, Ex Libras, would like to apologize for any discomfort caused. We have decided that the best course of action is to make ourselves available for any counseling. In order to help the more tragically afflicted by this discrepancy we are in the process of launching the ‘19:04 PDCTAC’ (Paranoia Displacement Clinic & Tactical Action Charity) which will provide care for those who are unable to put trust back into bands and artists, and also help lead charges against instances of this kind elsewhere.

I guess an explanation is also in order:

It is something that will make better sense with the physical copies of the CD. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into the tech research for our CD. The materials we sourced for the CD have special properties. These properties are sensitive to certain frequency washes, and will only come into play when the materials are also in motion. These very frequencies have been hidden under the track ‘19:04’. As the track plays, the frequency wash emitted causes the inner structural particles of the CD to rapidly vibrate. These micro-vibrations start to resonate at a very specific interval within the upper register of infra sound. This, when coupled with the frequency wash, start to cause tiny tears into the very fabric of space and time.

Over multiple controlled tests, the most common reaction was a sort of ‘time-stretch’ and this stretch was a decrease in relative time by 128.992%. So the result is that when you listen to that track, even though the track lasts for 8minutes and 14seconds, due to this ‘time-stretch’, 19minutes and 4seconds would have actually passed.