Monday 10 November 2014

Have You Heard? - The Dreaming Spires - Darkest Before The Dawn EP


We last heard from The Dreaming Spires (which are brothers Robin & Joe Bennett - with assorted guest musicians when required) - with their album debut album Brothers In Brooklyn, which came out on the best UK label, Clubhouse Records in 2012.

Brothers... was a guitar driven beauty of an album which summoned the ghosts of The Byrds, Creedence, Tom Petty & Buffalo Springfield and well worth investigating.



Joe has been working closely over the past couple of years with Michael Gale on his Co-Pilgrim project and the musicality of Co-Pilgrim may well have permeated into the sounds on their new EP, The Darkest Before The Dawn.

You can read a very good interview with Robin about the new EP on the link below.


The EP opens up with an epic 7 minute slice of Americana - but with a superb twist.

The sound on Hype Bands Parts 1 & 2 is augmented with a superb horn section and sounds like it was recorded down in that hall of musical sorcery, Muscle Shoals.
It still contains the jangly guitars, now a feature of the Spires music but filled out with swirling organ and the horns, it sounds magnificent. 
I wonder if the spirit of the music the boys worked on with Danny & The Champions Of The World has finally found its way onto a Dreaming Spires track? 


The second track on the 3 song EP is the very Tom Petty sounding House On Elsinore. With it's soaring harmonies and chiming guitars, it's very much the sound that we have come to expect from The Spires but with a gentler acoustic backing to those ringing guitars and a slightly psychedelic swirl. 

Robin & Joe Bennett

The final track on the EP is title track Darkest Before The Dawn. More downbeat than the first two tracks, it still has those now trademark harmonies and ringing guitars. It brings to mind one of the great forgotten bands Big Star. Worth checking out to see one of the Spires more melodic influences.



Robin Bennett

With a new album due out in early 2015 - this new EP is a tempting taster of what to expect on the album. If it's anything like Brothers In Brooklyn, then we are in for a treat - but the tracks on the EP show a growth in sound and an elegance that points to further gems to come. 

So get the EP - and keep your eyes out on the Clubhouse website for the pre-order information for the album, which is destined to be one of the best albums of 2015.




Twitter - @dreaming_spires

@ClubhouseUK




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