The Brute Chorus are a motley bunch.Comprising West Country vicar’s son James Steel (Guitars, Vocals), Cumbrians Nick Foots (multi-instrumentalist & vocals) and Matthew Day (drums & percussion, son of a Quaker morris man) and Andy Holt (bass) from County Durham. The quartet arrived in London from the four corners of the land to pursue their interests at college in Greenwich.The band’s first release is a charming offering of psyched-out garage-folk. A-side Chateau tells the tale of a taciturn lover literally besieged by love taking the forms of an unwanted visitor and then a wolf at the door. Like a nightmare Red Riding Hood turned inside out - "You look just like a wolf my dear, though you’re wearing clever clothes".
Bass-heavy, vintage keyboards and dirty guitar licks form the battle ground for the melody that frontman James Steel dreamt one night and wrote within minutes of waking up.
AA side - the splendidly titled The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart - is a blistering duet with band friend and former Fiction signing Tigs.
The two singers take it in turns to tell a tale of infidelity, theft, revenge and murder over a pounding skiffle rhythm adorned with synthesizers, kazoos and a banjo played by another friend Mat Martin; all served up Fairytale of New York style.
The Brute Chorus have been combining garage, blues and folk music with a scatology of Biblical stories, nursery rhymes and fairy tales since March of this year.
They’ve been taking it to the people with sets at The Secret Garden Party, Danny McNamara’s The Aftershow in Manchester, a monthly residency at Camden’s infamous Hawley Arms pub and became Myspace front page featured artists along the way.
The band all live together in a flat in Whitechapel formerly inhabited by Bow Wow Wow, so they claim.
Chateau is the first release on Bumpman Records - a new indie label born out of aforementioned Camden indie Mecca, The Hawley Arms.