Public Relations Exercise
Encyclopedia
Public Relations Exercise were a Leicester
, England
based post-hardcore
/alternative rock
group. A five-piece combining aspects of screamo
and math rock
, layered with penetrative and socially observant lyrics
.
s Martin Smith and Lloyd Carter. From an early age, they worked on various projects with local drummer Danny Star, and with the later addition of Irish
-born bassist, Tiernan Welch, and guitarist, Spencer Baggotts, their line-up was finalised in September 2005. The name is taken from the inlay of Radiohead
's second album, The Bends
.
In their short history; Public Relations Exercise played with acts including Youthmovies
, 65daysofstatic
, and Foals many others. After demoing material for some time, the band recorded their debut single 'Subteniente' , at Far Heath Studios with producer
Angus Wallace (The Fall, The Prodigy
) in 2007, which was released as a through Nottingham
based Field Records in conjunction an extensive UK tour with ex-Million Dead
frontman Frank Turner
and London
Hardcore outfit Score One For Safety.
Public Relations Exercise earned limited notoriety but gained reviews in national press such as Rock Sound
. Their first long player album, Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
, was released on April 2, 2007 via Field Records to positive reviews.
P.R.E's second single was released on October 22, 2007. The single, which included two unreleased b-sides, were recorded at their rehearsal space located in Merrylees Industrial Estate, situated in the West of Leicestershire
, on 8 & 9 August. In order to promote the single the band completed a tour with Northern Irish Post rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar
.
Popular zine Drowned In Sound
launched a competition for a reader to produce the artwork for the single. The final artwork chosen was designed by Ed Pentelow and was announced by the webzine on 15 August.
The single was received decent reviews from the usual on-line webzines and a "celebrity review" from members of Finnish Viking metal idiots Turisas
in the October issue of Rock Sound.
2008 saw the band splitting amicably.
Members of the band Martin Smith, Tiernan Welch, Lloyd Carter and Danny Star briefly played together in Bronze Age who recorded with Field Records
' Tim Waterfield and played a handful of shows in 2009.
Mike Kemp - Rock Sound
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
is pretty much the record we'd all come to expect from an outfit as uncompromising and inventive as Public Relations Exercise, which only goes to show that the derelict dungeon of despair known as Leicester does have something to offer after all.
Drowned in Sound
Leicester's Public Relations Exercise have been garnering a lot of positive press of late and it's not hard to see why. Their debut album is a healthy dose of alt-rock with a smigden of Slint mixed up with a healthy portion of Fugazi. Musically it's all over the place, discordant blues rock gone to hell and screamo
with a posh accent, but above all it's absolutely incendiary. Where have these boys been hiding because it's time for them to take a bow.
Terrorizer
A whirlwind of noise takes breaks for angular guitar work and singing...a triumph without compomise.
Rock Sound
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
based post-hardcore
Post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
/alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
group. A five-piece combining aspects of screamo
Screamo
Screamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
and math rock
Math rock
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock like King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Henry Cow - and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich and John Cage...
, layered with penetrative and socially observant lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
.
History
The band began as a product of the development of bedroom songwriterSongwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
s Martin Smith and Lloyd Carter. From an early age, they worked on various projects with local drummer Danny Star, and with the later addition of Irish
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
-born bassist, Tiernan Welch, and guitarist, Spencer Baggotts, their line-up was finalised in September 2005. The name is taken from the inlay of Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's second album, The Bends
The Bends
The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. The Bends was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band...
.
In their short history; Public Relations Exercise played with acts including Youthmovies
Youthmovies
Youthmovies were an English rock quintet, comprising Andrew Mears , Al English , Graeme Murray , Stephen Hammond and Sam Scott...
, 65daysofstatic
65daysofstatic
65daysofstatic are an instrumental post-rock and math rock band from Sheffield, England comprising Paul Wolinski, Joe Shrewsbury, Rob Jones and Simon Wright...
, and Foals many others. After demoing material for some time, the band recorded their debut single 'Subteniente' , at Far Heath Studios with producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Angus Wallace (The Fall, The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
) in 2007, which was released as a through Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
based Field Records in conjunction an extensive UK tour with ex-Million Dead
Million Dead
Million Dead were a hardcore punk band from London, UK, active between 2001 and 2005.-History:The band was founded in 2000 by Cameron Dean and Julia Ruzicka, after both came to London from Australia. They were joined by Ben Dawson, who had worked with Dean in a record shop in the city...
frontman Frank Turner
Frank Turner
Frank Turner is an English folk/punk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Winchester. Initially the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, Turner embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based solo career following the band's split in 2005. To date, Turner has released four solo albums, two rarities...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Hardcore outfit Score One For Safety.
Public Relations Exercise earned limited notoriety but gained reviews in national press such as Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
. Their first long player album, Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs is the debut album by Public Relations Exercise.- Track listing :#"Maximiser Co-ordinator" - 2:13#"Catalyst" - 2:01#"Sub10" - 2:20#"Interface! Interface!" - 2:25#"Parallax Error" - 3:46...
, was released on April 2, 2007 via Field Records to positive reviews.
P.R.E's second single was released on October 22, 2007. The single, which included two unreleased b-sides, were recorded at their rehearsal space located in Merrylees Industrial Estate, situated in the West of Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, on 8 & 9 August. In order to promote the single the band completed a tour with Northern Irish Post rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar
And So I Watch You From Afar
And So I Watch You From Afar are a three-piece instrumental rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. The band consists of Rory Friers on guitar, Johnny Adger on bass and Chris Wee on drums...
.
Popular zine Drowned In Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
launched a competition for a reader to produce the artwork for the single. The final artwork chosen was designed by Ed Pentelow and was announced by the webzine on 15 August.
The single was received decent reviews from the usual on-line webzines and a "celebrity review" from members of Finnish Viking metal idiots Turisas
Turisas
Turisas is a Finnish folk metal band from Hämeenlinna. It was founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström and named after an ancient Finnish God of war....
in the October issue of Rock Sound.
2008 saw the band splitting amicably.
Members of the band Martin Smith, Tiernan Welch, Lloyd Carter and Danny Star briefly played together in Bronze Age who recorded with Field Records
Field Records
Field Records is a British, Nottingham-based independent record label featuring bands such as Ann Arbor, Karhide, Alright the Captain, Kasper rosa, LaFaro, Khuda, Public Relations Exercise, Princess, and Maybeshewill.The label is run by Tim Waterfield....
' Tim Waterfield and played a handful of shows in 2009.
Press
Public Relations Exercise offer more immediate thrills with their highly-charged antics. A man by the name of Fats stands hunched over a microphone, spitting out words with a manic sense of urgency and desperation while intensely rhythmic guitars pound away at the cranium. Simultaneously catchy and chaotic, the Leicester bunch are quite simply a joy to behold.Mike Kemp - Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs
Come you are safe, we are from the bombs is the debut album by Public Relations Exercise.- Track listing :#"Maximiser Co-ordinator" - 2:13#"Catalyst" - 2:01#"Sub10" - 2:20#"Interface! Interface!" - 2:25#"Parallax Error" - 3:46...
is pretty much the record we'd all come to expect from an outfit as uncompromising and inventive as Public Relations Exercise, which only goes to show that the derelict dungeon of despair known as Leicester does have something to offer after all.
Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
Leicester's Public Relations Exercise have been garnering a lot of positive press of late and it's not hard to see why. Their debut album is a healthy dose of alt-rock with a smigden of Slint mixed up with a healthy portion of Fugazi. Musically it's all over the place, discordant blues rock gone to hell and screamo
Screamo
Screamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
with a posh accent, but above all it's absolutely incendiary. Where have these boys been hiding because it's time for them to take a bow.
Terrorizer
Terrorizer
Terrorizer is an American grindcore and death metal band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel , Napalm Death and Nausea...
A whirlwind of noise takes breaks for angular guitar work and singing...a triumph without compomise.
Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
Line up
- Martin Smith - Vocals
- Danny Star - DrumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s - Lloyd Carter - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s - Spencer Lee - Guitars
- Tiernan Welch - BassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
Singles
- Subteniente 7" Split w/LafaroLafaroLaFaro are a four piece alternative rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They consist of Jonny Black , Dave Magee , Cahir O'Doherty and Alan Lynn .-History:...
- Field RecordsField RecordsField Records is a British, Nottingham-based independent record label featuring bands such as Ann Arbor, Karhide, Alright the Captain, Kasper rosa, LaFaro, Khuda, Public Relations Exercise, Princess, and Maybeshewill.The label is run by Tim Waterfield....
2006 - Catalyst - Field RecordsField RecordsField Records is a British, Nottingham-based independent record label featuring bands such as Ann Arbor, Karhide, Alright the Captain, Kasper rosa, LaFaro, Khuda, Public Relations Exercise, Princess, and Maybeshewill.The label is run by Tim Waterfield....
22 October 2007
See also
- List of bands from England
- List of post-rock bands
- List of math rock bands