Having too much time on your hands can be a very dangerous thing. Especially when you live in the melancholic funk that is Plymouth, England. Fighting the tendency to vegetate all day in front of the television whilst skinning up and playing Zelda.

An ad placed on a notice board in the Student Union led to something rather unexpected and also beautiful. Radel Esca (aka Alton Everest) had found himself in a town where he knew no one, and what's more had no access to any of his audio equipment. All he wanted was to find someone who had a turntable and who knew what Sound Forge was—though he was perfectly content in meeting people who just had the turntable. Andrew Leonidas (aka Alexander White) was the first person to repond to Alton's ad, and it could not have played out more wonderfully. Bonding over a mutual love of jazzy drum-n-bass and the nachos from the now defunct Caffeine Club, musical history was in the process of being made, with the beginning of the Sugar Coated Bullets.

The circumstances surrounding the production of their first EP, glory and precision, are almost comical. Using a borrowed Celeron PC, a pair of Goodman computer speakers, a small speaker covered in electrical tape plugged into a mic jack, chain smoked camel lights and eating snickers bars for dinner to save those last couple of quid for a pint before the Dutchess closes at 11. The final product being a lo-fi jazzy hip-hop beauty.

Sugar Coated Bullets confront the art of making tunes with a subdued sophistication. Warm and welcoming, yet unconventional. They are currently in the lab writing your new favorite song.

In 1998, the only thing that plymouth england could really claim as both home grown and exciting and lasting more than a couple of months, was Jelly Jazz at the Quay Club. In the shadow of that scene were a couple of University kids with a box of tattered vinyl rescued from local carboot sales trying to construct some sort of audio Arte Povera, and succeeding in coming away with something entirely different than what they had originally set out to acheive.

These 3 songs are a sample of what happened. Sure there were the classes to go to, sometimes. And sure there were the various dj nights out about town and the young freshers to snog and various intoxicants to consume and what have you—but all of that stuff costs money, staying home to make beats is almost free. 50p vinyl sampled off of the turntable of a friend who lives across town. Scarves and mittens and 4 layers of clothing to keep warm in the unheated bedroom whislt recording. Chinese take-away served by the man with one good eye. A two-litre bottle of cider at the 1/4-level mark in the fridge. A few flakes of tobacco left in the pouch. But luckily, a friendly ginger-haired metal head pops 'round from Norwich to say hello and skin up with us. Lovely.

I recall Paris, it was much prettier than all of this is. Virginia seems like a far off place. And true, 3000 miles is far, but further in time than in distance.The Westcountry is beautiful when you are actually in the country part of it. Nestled in the armpit of England where Cornwall and Devon meet along the south coast is the lazy funk of amotivation called Plymouth. These are songs taken from the soundtrack of hope as covered by despair and his band of maudlin lovers.

mp3's
1. Precious Components
2. The Definition of Fresh
3. No Glory This Morning

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