The Slytones

“We stand alone like knights on the forefront of our musical progression. We fit in like a square pig in a round hole. But we use a hammer, mate!” (The Slytones, 2013) With a sound that encompasses everything from schizophrenic fairground avant-pop and queasy skanking swamp-ska to crunching left-brain hard rock and mad scientist anti-funk, this twelve-legged creative force are simply one of the most inventive and mind-boggling bands to emerge from the UK in years. Formed in 2006 as a trio, these clown-faced fidgets from the sunny south coast have since expanded into a well-oiled sextet and are gleefully injecting some theatricality, colour and mischievous menace back into a British rock scene that too often chases its own tail to no avail. You have never heard or seen anything quite like them. That’s a promise. “The plan was always to make any noise we want and to write music however we felt like at the time,” says keyboard maestro Chip Phillips. “We want to say anything to the world we want, to express our personalities as clearly and transparently as possible. It’s about urges, desires, needs, flaws, thoughts, beliefs…” With a mind-bending array of influences informing their perfectly crafted bursts of sonic dementia, The Slytones are a band revelling in the limitless possibilities conjured by the human imagination. With a shared love of The Doors, Mr. Bungle, Queens Of The Stone Age and Jimi Hendrix and lessons learned from such diverse sources as Motown, psychedelia, gospel, jazz and Afrobeat, the band’s hissing cauldron of extraordinary ideas and noises was always destined to produce a remarkable aural soup, heavy on the spice and with subtly hallucinogenic qualities thrown in for good measure. With two acclaimed self-released EPs under their collective cummerbund and a formidable reputation for mesmerising live performances that redefine the whole concept of controlled chaos – including numerous festival appearances and an unforgettable support slot with The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in their native Brighton - The Slytones have paid their dues, honed their skills and are now ready to erupt from the shadows like a multi-limbed frenzy of guile, gall and greasepaint with not a hint of contrivance or compromise to tarnish their music’s malevolent gleam. “To me it has always been about being ourselves – the clown you see is me it does not feel like an act,” says frontman Ashley Edwards. “Naturally the sound has matured as we have developed. Originally it was easier to label the music as a specific genre, but now we can’t. How could we?” “With the introduction of face paint, our stage show became far more theatrical and inclusive,” says Chip. “The face paint changed everything. Our stage personalities developed, the show became more intense and the art of performance became more important to enhance the music.” 2016 looks certain to be the year that The Slytones explode into the quivering subconscious of music fans around the UK and beyond. After the tantalising release of a brand new single and video, the deliciously infectious She Said She Came From The Sea, the band will be unleashing their self-titled debut album and embarking on a sustained campaign of live shows and festival hijacks. An exhilarating carnival of lacerating hooks, angular grooves, sanity-threatening rhythmic switcheroos and sumptuous but subversive instrumentation, it will delight, hypnotise and terrify in equal measure. As the band themselves proudly state: “The Slytones have created a monster. It is called The Slytones.” The Slytones are: Ashley Edwards - lead vox/guitar Bradley Wescott - guitar Chip Phillips - keys/vox Chris Warren - bass/vocals Freddie Hills - drums/vox Robin O'Keeffe – percussion/vox http://www.facebook.com/theslytones http://slytonesthe.co.uk Twitter: @TheSlytones slytonesthe.co.uk http://theslytones.bandcamp.com