Rock, dance, electronica, folksy acoustics, orchestral soundscapes, South have always been impossible to pin down. Now the chameleons of pop are back.
After a year mastering the art of production in their own studio, the first single from the new album conjures up New Order vintage New Order. A Place in Displacement is a dance anthem for the heart, mellow with regret, anticipating a love that is not yet quite lost.
"The track is loosely about trying to find a place in life and the fact that we don't always know where to find love and happiness or how to deal with them if we do, you don't want to wear your heart on your sleeve, in case that love isn't returned," says Joel Cadbury who penned A Place in Displacement.
Meanwhile, the tingly Fight Your Cause evokes a George-Harrison inspired Beatles, and the third song Addiction to Fiction has the souffled - lightness of a Jeff Buckley or Nick Drake.
The London-based trio were first signed to James Lavelle's Mowax label in 1999. After the joyous chaos of their first album, From Here on In, their sound became both both tighter and more lush on their follow-up With the Tides, produced by Dave Eringa (who has worked with the Manics and Ash) and released on Kinetic Records. They have also enjoyed a prestigious sideline scoring soundtracks for the Oscar-nominated film Sexy Beast and US TV dramas The OC and Six Feet Under.
South Joel Cadbury (lead vocals, bass and guitar), Jamie McDonald (lead guitar, vocals and drums) and Brett Shaw (drums and guitars) are particularly proud that their track Keep Close was used to accompany goal montages in Premiership soccer TV round-up.
Over the years they have been compared to artists as disparate as the Stone Roses, Elbow, Radiohead, Oasis, the Verve, Queen, Mercury Rev and the Small Faces. But they wear their myriad influences lightly to create a sound, a melodic melancholy, that is uniquely South.
[this site is mantained by a fan of south. not by the actual band.]
