Halfway To The Sun

Description

""Cool and deviant avant-rock...filthy/regal" - NME
"Sharp, spiky, sexy, shuddering stuff" - The Fly
"Aurally delectable, like Sonic Youth meets a scrubbed Babes in Toyland" - Artrocker

Following up their critically heralded 2008 debut album, Royal Treatment Plant have announced the release of their sophomore LP, Halfway to the Sun.

When Hope is Not Enough was released in 2008, those with a keen ear for angular pop averted their attentions to the London-based, classically trained five-piece; accolades from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq in the form of album and single of the week, an XFM nomination for Album of the Year and heavy rotation on MTV2 saw the record gain recognition and momentum. However, it was their blistering sets at In The City and Camden Crawl, and shows alongside Marina & The Diamonds, Young Knives, and Los Camposinos! that saw the alt-popper's grow from a hum to a deafening lo-fi roar and a record deal with Universal Music in Australia.

In 2011 the band were invited to perform at Austin's SXSW where they wowed a number of leading showcases - including the Play Network and Sonicbids events. Their single 'All The Same' also surfaced via F1 Rocks (Eminem and N.E.R.D in SaoPaulo) and as the title track for two series of Channel 4's On Track with Seat.

Now, armed with an impressively diverse two albums of material and a run of impending live shows, they are set to release their sophomore effect – Halfway to the Sun. Produced by Premen Underhill (Klaxons, Jack Penate, Little Death) and recorded at Timber Street Studios in East London through late 2010 and early 2011, the album – due for release this Autumn - beautifully illustrates a sound that has seen the band compared to The Pixies, Ladyhawke and Sonic Youth. Timber Street Studios's produced a uniquely warm album, being a largely unknown space, the band were able to record a very organic sound with a rich analogue feel. The studio's old organ, for instance, smelt as though it was about to go up in smoke as Paula played parts of 'Showdown', adding genuine character to Halfway To The Sun.

That brilliantly moody and sharp sound is heard best on 'Say It Like You Mean It', a track which opens up in verse before imploding into it's impossibly effortless chorus, and on 'Ways To Die', a song that puts new thinking behind classic melody and nods towards Fleetwood Mac and scenic Americana; the sentiment also behind 'On A Friday'.

It's live though where this intelligent texurisation is dramatically apparent - as they break dusty, fuzzy riffs over melancholy, soulful vocals that plough through these soaring melodies. It's everything about the 90's grunge and lo-fi era that modern takes on the sound have left out; the energy, the raw excitement of feet stomping beneath you as bodies sweatily writhe. The band retain an element of fun, reminding their listener that beneath the guitar hum, Royal Treatment Plant make incredible pop songs full of imagery and narrative. Their songs are stories, told to the clap of a drum.

Much has been said about Australian-born singer, guitarist (and preacher's daughter) Paula Steel - the effect her upbringing by Seventh Day Adventist Parents in Papua New Guinea has had on the cinematic approach to her songwriting, has raised an eyebrow with fans and the musical literati alike. It's now, however, that Royal Treatment Plant's story takes a turn. If Hope is Not Enough was a smiling reflection on her past then the new album is a screaming proclamation of the band's future; with confident and layered song-making, it's classic British rock, made by articulate, young musicians.

"The only true meaning to be had in all this is in simply doing: playing, writing, recording, presenting yourself to the world, as part of a group of people whose ensuing collaboration has outlived most marriages, keeping going, just doing it. Words, music, notes. A kind of fury sits just below the rational existence of work > music > sleep > dreams > now. Out the songs come. Sometimes months, years after the time that left its mark. Because they have to. To make sense of the day, the politics, the freedom, the unfairness, the exhaustion, the death wish, the uncertainty. The never-ending stream of news still makes your heart heavy and your eyes darken. It's best to look away, but you have to watch. And laterthe song will fall out of your mouth and fingers and become the next round of your eye's light." Royal Treatment Plant, 2011.