FEATURE: Spotlight: Penelope Isles — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Penelope Isles

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PHOTO CREDIT: Russ Leggatt

could get any more lovable and appealing, they go and appear on Shaun Keaveny’s show on BBC Radio 6 Music and kick ass! Not only did they perform on the hottest day of the year so far (Thursday, 25th July) but they came from Brighton (to London) and played a trio of songs that brought some serious cool. They were completely charming in conversation and came across as down-to-earth and funny. The sort of band you can hang out with and be mates with; this incredible crew that are providing some of the freshest and most original sounds around. Their Facebook biography is brief but, in short, Penelope Isles are described thus:

“Hailing from the Isle of Man, Penelope Isles is the sounds of Jack and Lily Wolter, with the help of friends Becky Redford and Jack Sowton. Currently based between Brighton and Cornwall, the band perform melodic fuzz pop with dynamics that will transfix and satisfy. Hypnotic, chiming bedroom pop music. For the lovers of Radiohead, The Magic Numbers and Deerhunter”.

Their music and live sets have this wide-eyed brightness and optimism that is impossible to ignore. On the surface, Penelope Isles’ music is sweet and bubbly but there is an underlying scuzz, scruffiness and rush that gives this sense of danger, the unexpected and complex. Their single, Leipzig, has been getting a lot of airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music and it is a track that seems to sum the band up: dizzying and twirling with a catchy chorus but it there is a raw core and punch that gets to the gut.

The band’s new album, Until the Tide Creeps In, is a ten-track gem that allows the band to breathe and venture. Although there are only ten tracks, a lot of tracks last over four minutes and there is incredible musicianship on display. Songs such as Not Talking display the dreaminess and haze that Penelope Isles do so well; a sense of floating in warm waters whereas Gnarbone is rushing, eclectic and lasts over seven minutes – although the song seems to fly by and you will come back time and time again. Although 2019 has produced some wonderful albums, I think Penelope Isles will compete for the best album award; they have the ammunition and songwriting brilliance in addition to range and natural chemistry. The reviews for Until the Tide Creeps In have been positive. This is DIY’s take:

“Brighton quartet Penelope Isles – centred around the brother/ sister duo of Jack and Lily Wolter – have never been particularly ‘cool’. Favouring pure melodies, and the classic, harmony-laden sensibilities of bands like The Thrills over the grungy riffs of many of their town’s fellow bands of note, it’s a viewpoint that’s made them hard to place in 2019.

Yet, on their debut, shying away from any kind of pigeonholing is a trait that works in their favour; moving between the heady sonic embrace of early track ‘Round’, ‘Not Talking”s fragile, swelling croon and the bigger, denser build of ‘Gnarbone’, it means the band can go wherever they like.

What holds it all together, meanwhile, is this sense of something insular and emotional, of unashamedly bright melodies that throw you into the sunlight and make the darker moments even more striking. ‘Until The Tide Creeps In’ is a record totally out of step with any modern music scene, and all the more timeless and special for it”.

Underwater Record Store is my favourite track from the album because it sounds like the opening to a Quentin Tarantino flick! I can imagine a cool-ass heroine driving a classic car through the desert as the sun sets; a great shot that shows a trail of carnage behind her (as the camera pans back and, as the camera moves overhead (and does not look in front of the car), there is a pan to the windscreen where we can see a line of police cars and cops with guns pointing at her; a mischievous glint in her eyes as, looking into the backseat, we see someone tied up. Songs that provoke images like this and that sort of wild imagination should be applauded. Most artists do not managed to craft these songs often: Penelope Isles have done it ten times on their debut album! PASTE, when they reviewed Penelope Isles’ album, had these thoughts:

“Penelope Isles’ style ranges from psych pop to art rock, ringing with influences like Radiohead, The Hives, Grizzly Bear, Tame Impala, and maybe a pinch of the Flaming Lips. “Underwater Record Store,” the album’s fourth track, does sound like the kind of title Wayne Coyne would come up with for one of his own songs, after all; the image is evocatively bizarre, classic Lips, except it’s personal to the Wolter’s experience—it’s the only song on the record to make mention of their father…

It isn’t the first time the record references him, though: The cover boasts a picture of their dad building a sandcastle, taken when he met Jack and Lily’s mother, which reinforces the familial bonds woven throughout Until the Tide Creeps In.

“Underwater Record Store” is the Wolters’ sweet, ethereal ode to dad, Lily’s account of a childhood incident on a beach or perhaps, simply a dream. Given the plaintive and astral quality of the music, maybe it’s a bit of both, a yarn about the time she built a sandcastle and sat helplessly to witness the iniquity of passerby trampling her work. “My Dad took me to a real castle / To make me see that nobody’s got me down,” she sings in reflective appreciation of the lesson, of Dad, of the memory. Like so much of Until the Tide Creeps In, “Underwater Record Store” is space the Wolters have created to examine together their individual and joint pasts. It’s music to reminisce to”.

Have a look at the band’s website to see where you can catch them perform but, by the looks of things, they in Finland at the moment. It is great to see there is that demand out there and not only are they proving popular in Brighton but venues around Europe want to support them. It has been a busy past year for the band and, between completing their album and the media duties, there has been little chance to chill.

It is revealing reading interviews with Penelope Isles. Here, they talked with Brighton Source and they highlighted the band’s performance at this year’s Great Escape:

“On a breezy early-summer Saturday, at the Village pub in Hanover, we begin with reminiscences about the previous month’s Great Escape, where we first see Penelope Isles downstairs at the Hope and Ruin on the Friday afternoon. The set-up’s basic; the sound is edgy, but simultaneously lucid and vibrant. The band are fantastic: a sonic club sandwich filled with 60s-inspired harmonies, held together with cocktail sticks of synth ambience and topped with a fizzing, thundering, ten-minute motorik jam-out, called Gnarbone.

“It felt like going out with no make-up on,” says Lily Wolter (keys, vocals, bass) about the gig’s intimate, rough-and-ready nature.

We love them so much at the Hope that we go to see them again the following night, at the Sallis Benney Theatre. Surely they can’t be that good again? They are even better. This time, the sound is thick, warm and lush, and the place is rammed. To us, it feels like a turning point. And they appear to agree.

“I felt it was probably our most special Brighton gig,” says Lily. “But then I also felt that at the Green Door Store at the Great Escape”.

This interview shows that the band is a stunning live proposition and they can sort of transform depending on their setting: if there is a small space then they can do intimate whereas they are able to spread and expand where there is more room to manoeuvre.

Although the band love Brighton and know there is so much there for any musician – the venues and great people – they are thriving on the road and have this incredible connection. When speaking with DORK, the familial bond of the band was highlighted in addition to a stunning realisation: Penelope Isles have taken their first big steps and it seems like even better things are coming up:

“Also at the heart of Penelope Isles is of course family. Not for the Wolters any Gallagher-esque fisticuffs, instead it is an idyllic-sounding existence of shared hopes and experiences. "It's amazing", Jack admits, "It's a wonderful feeling, especially now we've started to travel. Neither of us have really done it before because when all your mates are doing it, we were skint because we used all our money to go on tour or something."

There's something infectious about his excitement for these upcoming travels, as well as the sheer pleasure and pride in finally having that debut under his belt. "We've fallen in love with it, we've fallen out of love with it and back again, and now I'm just really excited for people to hear it!"

With their largest ever headline tour in the bag later this year, and the first baby steps to album number two already begun, there is a sense that the tides are starting to swell for Penelope Isles. Bringing the seaside to a town near you, it's time to dive in”.

Penelope Isles have come a long way since their formation and, if you want to see how they sounded a few years ago, listen to Comfortably Swell and you can see the differences. They have always been excellent but I think the band have grown in confidence and have added more into their mix. The band is heading to the U.S. later in the year and it will give them a new audience; a fresh world and the opportunity to get their music played by new radio stations. They are definitely moving in the right direction and who can blame the world for latching onto this beautiful and dreamy sound? Penelope Isles are hard to describe and pin down because, as I said earlier, they mix the ethereal and calm with songs that fizz, blossom and burst. Until the Tide Creeps In is a fantastic record that warrants a lot of love and appreciation. The more you listen to it, the more the songs reveal themselves. They are so well-written and nuanced; fascinating, instantly appealing and accessible. You’d hate the band if they were jerks and made this great music but, as I started out with, they are sweethearts – they really are the complete package and everyone should throw their weight behind them. Check out their social media feeds (at the end of this feature) and keep an eye on Penelope Isles. These guys are going to be pretty huge very soon and, honestly, they deserve every ounce of credit and respect. Go and buy Until the Tide Creeps In if you can and go and support them on the road. Just one sip of their heady music and your mind wanders into this…