Adam Stafford
+ Zed Penguin + Bell Lungs
The Hug and Pint presents Adam Stafford // 'Fire Behind the Curtain' Album Launch Friday 4th May, 2018 Tickets --> http://bit.ly/2G01ViK
Recorded in the Song, by Toad HQ, The Happiness Hotel, the latest addition to the Adam Stafford opus is Fire Behind the Curtain. The double neoclassical L.P. is a testament of hope in his battle against depression. It was written over an 8-year period and inspired by Adam’s love of Meredith Monk, Michael Gordon and US Minimalism. Adam gives a preview of his latest avant-garde musical expedition: “Choirs yelp and screech, beatboxing courses through cosmic k-holes and guitars sound like saxophones trapped deep in the wasp-machine.”
"Yet again, Adam Stafford has created one of the best albums of the year" The National (on 'Taser Revelations')
"A songwriter of real depth, rich in understanding, in melodic virtuosity, his work has gradually built up into an imposing, heroic catalogue" CLASH Magazine
"Stafford approaches musical ideas like a meditator treats thoughts, allowing them to linger only briefly before setting them free and welcoming in the next" ★★★★ - The Skinny
Line Up
Adam Stafford's solo albums include the experimental works "Awnings" (2009), "Miniature Porcelain Horse Emporium" (2010), a mini covers Lp "Music in The Mirabel" (2010) and the Paul Savage-Produced "Build a Harbour Immediately" (2011) which are all available to download via www.wisebloodindustries.com
His latest LP "Imaginary Walls Collapse" was released by Song, by Toad and Kingfisher Bluez (N. America) in July 2013 and was nominated for a Scottish Album of the Year Award in May 2014.
Stafford is known for his intense and energetic live performances which incorporate soul-pop, post-punk and a capela experimentalism to dizzying effect.
Recent praise for Stafford:
“This is a quietly bold album, it’s unique brew of singular creativity and deference to traditional sounds unearths an all too rare air of finess” – 8/10, The Line of Best-Fit
“Adam Stafford is back and he might just have surpassed his own standards…A quite remarkable record, one which is both highly complex and ultimately welcoming” – Clash
“For all of the mind-puzzling intricacies of Stafford’s approach it’s his ability to write simple and wonderfully rich pop-songs that shines the brightest, and it’s those very basic and fundamental charms that make Imaginary Walls Collapse such a rewarding listen, and one of the years finest records” – Goldflakepaint
“Stafford still remains relatively unknown outside of Scotland, this could be the album that quickly changes that” – 4/5, The Skinny
“Stafford creates a masterpiece of composition via pedals, loops and effects, conjuring harmonised guitars and voices from a swirling mist of sound” – The Herald on Sunday
“All loop-building, axe-fuelled sonic (mis)shapes and vivid narratives… Imaginary Walls Collapse is tooled up in all sorts of deviant ways: it’s less acoustic; more propelled by electronics and the sounds of human harmony and dissonance” – 4/5, Album-of-the-fortnight, The List
“Contributions are chopped, looped and sampled to serve the artist’s twisted vision” 5/5, The Arts Desk
“Imaginary Walls Collapse is clever, tuneful and wildly inventive” – The Tidal Wave of Indifference
“Layered guitars swimming in reverb and forming the base for a challenging yet tuneful collection. This is intelligently crafted soundscape meets highly accessible pop music with a few twists, in turns confident and robust and then heart-breakingly fragile” – Drunken Werewolf
“Walls is a focused, concentrated record that distils Stafford’s sound and style into an eccentric concoction” – Dauphin Mag
