back in 2005 i started to receive these rather wonderfully packaged single track promos by the band the departure. the mixture of punk and funk was obviously designed to appeal to the haircut brigade meaning that cynical distrust would have been an easy option a la the bravery, something made even more possible by the fact that the band appeared out of nowhere with some heavy major label backing, giving way to rumours that the band were actually insiders and had worked in the offices at their paymasters, emi.
however any such ideas of negative thoughts were easy to dispel when the actual music started.
at the time, i stated a lot of this love was due to the production by steve osbourne and alan moulder, that made the music leap out of my skinny hi fi into full strength brilliance even if bands such as the editors and bloc party, were ripping into the same styled groove with a lot more commercial success.
then as part of my glastonbury 2005 event, prior to my twilight zone period i caught the band live in the peel tent and while they made the right noises, there was something that didn’t quite work as well, obviously the band were still learning their trade and if memory serves me right, their guitarist looked like he was in the wrong band (all punked up as opposed to the ties and new wave sharpness as per the rest of the band).
now 2 years later and the whole love for postpunkfunk has fallen away slightly, so how will the band fare with the current love for popped up disco. a quick recent revival of the music makes me stand by my original statement, this is big music that dips its toes into post-punk and moody arty indie but with a widescreen gloss that supplements the well crafted songs.
a quick scan of the blog/site it appears that the band are still hanging on in there despite a personnel change (original drummer simon has returned in a spinal tap-esque move) and promise some new fresh noise in 2007.
so, with that in mind i thought why not post one of their classics in remixed form.
the remix is a typical james ford styled electro revision, underpinning the track with an fantastically authentic 80s drum machine loop that the human league would have been proud of and then there is the indie disco friendly appearances by one finger synth parts all over the place to pose to.
wonderful.
mp3 : the departure : lump in my throat (james ford remix)
more detail : here