SILVER TONGUED RASCALS – (Silver Tongued Records)
Silver Tongued Rascals serve up thought-provoking & dance-floor quaking genre shattering indie-hop-electro bombs on new EP Fellas On A London Sesh due to drop Jan ’24. In the run-up to the four-track-body-of-work they’ll be releasing 3 singles from it during the course of 2023 to give people a taste of what lays ahead from their much anticipated full length Wavelengths set to be unleashed in April ’24, accompanied by a a tour later in Dec ’23 for the EP and the month of May ’24 for the album from this soon to be very active ensemble.
Ben Randm and Cillian Carroll are social commentators who drop dance-floor detonators and stand for equality. They met by chance at All Points East on a late summer bank holiday back in August 2021 after a day of dancing and indulgent recreational behaviour. They immediately hit it off and carried on the craick around Dalston, then at a wonky afters. Cill eventually had to fly to Paris and Ben returned to Leeds, but they have been musically inseparable ever since.
Making music online from their bases in Leeds and Dublin, they have cooked up a signature style that offers dance floor energy with plenty of cerebral stimulation. The band’s acute social commentary captures the disillusioned mood of the people while tapping into pressing everyday issues. Their passion for their craft shines through in their urgent, impactful sounds and, as they say, they’re “loving life and bringing them blessed vibes as we make music to move n groove you towards equality. We “don’t believe in genres or following trends – Our sound is Indie Hop Electro – We don’t do genres, we do our own authentic style”
New EP Fellas On A London Sesh (a title which nods to how the pair met as well as being a backronym for FOALS) doesn’t shy away from making strong statements as passionate opener ‘Asking For What’ encourages men to engage in a collective responsibility to resolve misogyny, an issue which is of their own cause. It demands men call out their mates, strangers or any general rhetoric and redresses the gender imbalance.
Frontman & songwriter Ben Randm says on the lyrics and songs message “We don’t expect fish to fix the pollution in the ocean so why does society keep saying that sexual harassment should have to be resolved by women!?!!! This song is to encourage men to engage in our responsibility in resolve what is mainly an issue of our causing by calling out such actions.
Its shocking and pathetic that this is lamented as a female issue n pinned on them in solving what is something that is quite literally shoved n forced upon them – this needs to drastically change, and rapid!”
Musically it is an immediately compelling pounding groove with snarled Yorkshire vocals and tight riffs that chew up and spit out post-punk, ska and indie into something all new sounding akin to a blend beat-wise mesh of ’08 Santigold x IDLES. In short this track is zero fluff – 100% ATTITUDE!
A clothing range of limited tees which are based on lyrics from the single are going to be designed & sold with all the profits going to women’s charities and organisations which specialise in these areas.
In addition to this to raise more awareness and solutions on this topic Ben will also be providing a series of interviews and discussions with advocates and qualified personnel around this matter to help provide a broader range of accessible information geared towards reframing the status-quo of generic rhetoric and changing the landscape to a more equal society.