‘Squeaky Wheel’ – new from James Ellis Ford

Listen now ↓https://t.co/NMnXeW6HdF

— Warp Records (@WarpRecords) April 12, 2023

Ford initiated his music career in 2000 as a founding member of rock band Simian before teaming up with Jas Shaw from the aforementioned group and forming the spin-off duo Simian Mobile Disco in 2003, this time with a focus on electronic music. The duo have enjoyed a fair deal of success since, even amassing somewhat of a cult following, but have been on hiatus ever since Shaw was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis in 2018, which has in turn afforded Ford the chance to think about producing music solo on his own terms.

Watch the video for “It’s The Beat”, the lead single from Simian Mobile Disco’s first album Attack Decay Sustain Release, below:

Ford is also a founding member of The Last Shadow Puppets, formed in 2008 with Alex Turner, Miles Kane and Zach Dawes, yet his musical exploits do not stop there. He has producing credits on 55 albums, most notably Klaxon’s Myths of the Near Future (2007), Florence and the Machine’s Ceremonials (2011), Gorillaz’ The Now Now (2016), and all of Artic Monkeys’ records to date, and plays a multitude of instruments on many, mainly on drums, keyboard and percussion.

Quite the CV then. With this quite frankly stupendous amount of musical prowess Ford naturally sets the bar sky high, and fans of Simian Mobile Disco and The Last Shadow Puppets, and possibly even Artic Monkeys themselves, will undoubtedly be tremendously excited by what Ford has to offer in his first solo outing.

If we are to judge the rest of the album by the two singles released from it already (“I Never Wanted Anything” is the other track), we should expect dreamy, partly funky, partly Pink Floyd-esque vibes. Tape loops are used immaculately in both songs, lending an ethereal touch that allows them to float on and along flawlessly whilst simultaneously giving the tracks a satisfying cohesive arc.

Listen to  “Squeaky Wheel” below:

Pre-order your copy of The Hum now here.

Celebrating their Yorkshire roots, the band wrapped up the UK leg of their extensive tour with a performance to please fans that had chosen to spend their Bank Holiday weekend at the festival. With a bumper bundle of hits spanning their entire musical career, the band mixed an array of hits from their recent album with tracks from their first album including ‘Dancing Shoes‘ and ‘Mardy Bum’.

This performance brought a long, impressive tour to a close and frontman Alex Turner expressed his adoration for the crowd before the band closed the main portion of their set with ‘505‘, claiming “We’ll leave you with a love song because we love you. Thank you for having us”.

This homecoming performance seems a fitting end to the band’s home portion of the tour before they head across the Atlantic and venture into Americas both North and South. With a four song encore, the band left the UK stage for what looks to be the final stage this year to rapturous applause, leaving crowds awaiting the announcement of further UK tour dates.

The group has not appeared in England for 2 years, due to international commitments and time spent cultivating songs in the Joshua Tree based studio alongside Josh Homme, whom Lennon-look-alike Alex Turner shares an almost musically incestuous relationship with. The witty wordsmith could hardly contain his excitement at the prospect of collaborating with the familiar sneering, Stoneage frontman who produced their last album ‘Suck It And See’; “the 30 seconds that he’s in there is… like something that I’ve never heard before.”

Since The Arctic Monkey’s departure from their definitive Naughties image of hoodies, sweeping hair-cuts and regional gritty realism, their UK heritage, who hailed them as “a once in a lifetime band” (Tim Jonze, NME 2005) seems to have been left behind for the air-brushings of the USA. This may be one of the reasons why the festival-goers at Glastonbury were so enamored, having recently been named ‘most exciting band’ by a poll at the reputable booking site, ‘Gigwise’. Alex Turner told the BBC that ”Glastonbury is like this old wise wizard… it controls the tides of the rock ‘n roll universe” a reverence which clearly matches the crowds anticipation. These events herald the commencement of a very fruitful latter half of 2013 for the conquering hero’s, who have returned laden with gifts.

Dates

Newcastle Metro Radio Arena (October 22)

Manchester Arena (23)

London Earls Court Arena (25)

Liverpool Echo Arena (28)

Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (29)

Birmingham LG Arena (31)

Glasgow Hydro Arena (November 1)

Sheffield Motorpoint Arena (2)