Posts Tagged ‘Litost’
Ambassadors – “Unconsolable” / “Weight / Lightness”
August 10th, 2011 • Comment, Introducing
Tags: AMBASSADORS, Brooklyn, Litost, New York, Unconsolable, Weight/Lightness
The more eagle-eyed of you may well be aware of our past involvement with the Brooklyn soul-infused quartet Ambassadors.
In October 2009, in the band’s formative stages, we arranged for them to come over to the UK for a series of shows – one down in Brighton, for Communion, and four up in London, including our own night at the now defunct Legion venue in Old Street. All were memorable gigs, with the band leaving quite an impression on their audiences each night. During their week long trip, they also recorded a memorable session for Balcony TV – you can view that here. In the (almost) two years since then, they’ve honed their craft and slowly built up a fan base back in New York.
Over the last few months, interesting cover versions have been appearing regularly on their website (we featured their weird and wonderful take on The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’ back in April), and have been given away for free – which has served to keep things current and interesting. Now, the band have a debut full-length (entitled ‘Litost’) ready for release and are fresh from high-profile opening slots with The Postelles, Darwin Deez and Viva Brother all over the East Coast.
“Unconsolable”, the first single off said LP, has been put out as a free download, and with any luck should get the ball well and truly rolling for them. It’s a mesemerising, scruff-of-the-neck-grabbing four and a half minutes – all frantic, dual percussion and containing one of the year’s most memorable hooks, delivered by front man Sam Harris’ unforgettable, emotion-filled vocal. Couple this with the far more orthodox, yet perfectly executed pop-rock of “Weight / Lightness” (another album track currently in the public domain), which is early U2-like in its overt ambition, and you have the makings of the next big FM friendly rock band – along the lines of Kings Of Leon, Foo Fighters, The Temper Trap or Local Natives. A&R men en garde!
