‘When we started the project it wasn’t intended to be a live thing, we wrote some electronic music and then it was like, ‘how do you interpret that live?”’ Intentional or not, April Towers are now a fully fabricated live act. Following a string of supporting tour dates across the country, their return to Nottingham saw them face their first headline show.
Unlike many successful synthpop acts April Towers aren’t clearly distinguished as a band. Stuck between the roles of producers and rock stars they run a risk of creating a confused live audience. Maybe more to the point, there remains a clear duality in their music. Alex himself reflects, ‘there’s two sides to what we do: the danceable pop element and the deeper darker pop element which I think we saw in the Arcadia single’.
stuck between the roles of producers and rock stars they run a risk of creating a confused live audience
Surprisingly, it’s the vocals where this duality hits you most head on. Alex’s sings with a melancholy tone that could almost be associated with the darkness of modern house music, yet when Charlie jerks forward to chant his backing vocals, it comes across with the free passion of 80’s pop anthems.
The Bodega’s small size, and the night’s blinding light effects, prevented you from being able to take much of a look at what the audience were doing- apart from hearing frequent cheers. But it’s the willingness to move and relax which makes April Towers work live. Elevating them from the pretensions of an experimental dance duo and firmly securing them as a ‘live pop act’.
Using a mix of influences and techniques there’s a clear market for the style they’ve created
‘Arcadia’, by no surprise, gets ecstatic responses from the audience. Alex had to reveal before that they would now be playing ‘the circle song’- for anyone who only knew the single by its video.
Tying the set up on ‘Peaks’ it’s clear that, regardless of whichever genre you class them as, April Towers know how to work a crowd. Using a mix of influences and techniques there’s a clear market for the style they’ve created. Charlie makes clear that ‘[Alex’s] biggest influence is The Beatles, you’d never be able to pick that out of our songs because we don’t remotely sound like The Beatles’. A quick response comes from Alex, ‘…do we not?’.
Feature image by Shaun Gordon Photography
Ian Fillingham
Ian is listening to: Playlounge – ‘Handclap Cinema’
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