The Cooper Temple Clause, its fair to say, are not everyones cup of tea. Theyre a force that thrives on raw excitement and choose to mix everything into their music to keep that extra bit of excitement going at all times. Their first album, See This Through And Leave, was an intricate record that flew in all sorts of directions, embodying punk, rock, electronica and prog, while making the band unsung heroes in the UK. The bands second album, the Phillip Larkin-quoting Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose, is even more audacious and surprisingly consistent. Recorded in their self-built studio on a farm, the band underwent many strange incidents during the process including a ghost, the near fatality of bassist Didz Hammond and bizarre costume parties, all of which can somehow be heard in the music. The result shows major growth within the band as they shred through guitar licks on the metallic "Promises Promises, conjure up the beautifully spacey ballad "Into My Arms and hit their stride as chart-topping contenders with the magnificently catchy "Blind Pilots. Kick Up The Fire is a head-scratcher upon definition and full of vigorous determination that sets them apart from everything else.
My first reaction was that you sounded like a completely different band from the first record. Ben Gautrey: There is definitely more sense of melody on this album that we lacked on the first one. A lot of the melodic sides of the band were shoved as b-sides and we sort of felt the band wasnt fully represented on the first album. I also think the first record was written over a period of three years, whereas this album was written, recorded and mixed in eight months. So there is definitely more of a focused and concise feel to the album.
Didz had a pretty serious medical condition right before you went in to start writing the album. He had a hole in his stomach and they thought it was appendicitis and it wasnt. He was drinking too much Red Bull and eating too many sun-dried tomatoes. Basically, he was shitting out of his stomach and sides and they thought there was a chance he was going to die. It definitely changed the mood of the album. Luckily he came back and was able to finish off the album and play bass on all of the tracks.
(RCA)My first reaction was that you sounded like a completely different band from the first record. Ben Gautrey: There is definitely more sense of melody on this album that we lacked on the first one. A lot of the melodic sides of the band were shoved as b-sides and we sort of felt the band wasnt fully represented on the first album. I also think the first record was written over a period of three years, whereas this album was written, recorded and mixed in eight months. So there is definitely more of a focused and concise feel to the album.
Didz had a pretty serious medical condition right before you went in to start writing the album. He had a hole in his stomach and they thought it was appendicitis and it wasnt. He was drinking too much Red Bull and eating too many sun-dried tomatoes. Basically, he was shitting out of his stomach and sides and they thought there was a chance he was going to die. It definitely changed the mood of the album. Luckily he came back and was able to finish off the album and play bass on all of the tracks.
