giant steps

The Boo Radleys emerged from the shadows of the noise underground to reveal this diverse musical tapestry of reggae, pop, shoegaze, and psychedelia.  Building on the advances of 'Everything's Alright Forever', the band draws on numerous influences and reinvents them on their own terms.  The sessions were produced by Martin Carr, Tim Brown, and Andy Wilkinson at First Protocol Studios in London and featured Sice Rowbottom on vocals; Rob Cieka on drums and percussion; Tim Brown on bass guitar and keyboards; and Martin Carr on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; with Steve Kitchen on trumpet and flugel horn; Lindsay Johnston on cello; Jackie Toy on clarinet and bass clarinet; Margaret Fiedler on cello; Chris Moore on trumpet; Meriel Barham, Yvette Lacey, Kle, Laurence, Nick Addison, Keith Cameron, and Guy Fixsen  on vocals;  Moose on handclaps on handclaps and vocals; and Russell on handclaps.  

Carr considers:    "We were listening to A.R. Kane, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, and Dinosaur Jr. It was an exciting time, we were 18, and it was exciting every Wednesday to get the NME and Melody Maker and find out what was going on. It was a reaction against the Manchester thing that was happening at the time, which we weren't really into that much. We just wanted to crank it up, and make noise. It was also an album about frustration, having to work, hating your job, and not feeling like your life is your own. So, to go out and make a hell of a record was good...I still write songs exactly the same way I did, maybe I'm just getting a bit better at it. I'm always challenging myself to write different types of songs rather than stick to a formula. In the past year, while I've been writing songs, I've been hearing trumpets and different stuff in there. Straightaway, I know where it's going to go...I can never remember where I get the ideas from. I knew I wanted to use the bass on a few of the songs, so I probably started off with that, and then built the songs around that. When I'm writing, I don't think: 'I'll put a country western beat in it, or a reggae beat in it', it just happens naturally. That's just what I hear...I just go in with this tape, with all the ideas, and we get it done. People have their own ideas, and we try everything out. By that stage, it's usually pretty obvious what it should sound like. Sometimes, they can't understand what exactly it is what I'm trying to do, and that can be frustrating. Music is a hard thing to describe. To describe what's going on in your head in words sometimes very difficult indeed... It's a reminder that there are other musics, and you can't put different labels on music, to define them is to limit them. There's never been an album that sounded like 'Giant Steps', it couldn't have been recorded in the sixties, or the seventies, or the eighties." 

Taking its title from the album by John Coltrane, 'Giant Steps' went to number seventeen on the UK album chart and established the band as new critical darlings.  The album placed second on the NME album of the year critic's list and first place in the NME readers' poll. Select magazine made 'Giant Steps' their album of the year.  






http://www.booradleys.co.uk/


http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps/







'Giant Steps'
full album:



All songs and lyrics written by Martin Carr, with music by The Boo Radleys.

"I Hang Suspended" - 3:57
"Upon 9th and Fairchild" - 4:50
"Wish I Was Skinny" - 3:37
"Leaves and Sand" - 4:25
"Butterfly McQueen" - 3:28
"Rodney King (Song for Lenny Bruce)" - 2:45
"Thinking of Ways" - 3:48
"Barney (...and Me)" - 4:42
"Spun Around" - 2:31
"If You Want It, Take It" - 2:47
"Best Lose the Fear" - 4:12
"Take the Time Around" - 4:07
"Lazarus" - 4:38
"One Is For" - 1:36
"Run My Way Runway" - 2:20
"I've Lost the Reason" - 5:17
"The White Noise Revisited" - 5:02