"If people are intolerant, you’ve gotta punch ‘em in the fucking mouth.†(Rich, The Rank Deluxe, NME 26th September 2006)
Hailing from south east London, The Rank Deluxe are an atypical indie outfit by any standard, sharing as much of an affinity with Grime or old school UK punk as they do with most of their supposed contemporaries. In thrall to no one, by turns willful, divisive and difficult, but also intuitive and funny, with a knack for aligning musical and social commentaries that similarly characterized bands like The Specials, Gang of Four or Ian Dury in the late ‘70s
Summer 2006’s opening salvo of three punchy and exhilaratingly raw AA side singles – ‘Doll Queue’ , ‘Style’ & ‘Poorman’s Cab’ threw The Rank Deluxe into sharp relief: NME suddenly found itself witnessing ‘the rowdiest, angriest punk rock explosion in the capital’, Uncut describing their set-closer ‘Style’ as a ‘thug-rock masterpiece’ while John Kennedy at Xfm made every release a Single Of The Week.
Releasing their eponymously titled EP in October ‘06 (bringing the three previously limited 7†single releases together on one CD), the band toured the UK and after a short & chaotic trip to Budapest, made their US live debut in November at two CMJ/ Fat Cat showcases in New York, playing - slightly incongruously – alongside labelmates The Twilight Sad, Nina Nastasia and Tom Brosseau. While there, the band also demoed new material, returning to the UK to play a clutch of dates through November. Witnessing The Rank Deluxe live, NME saluted a band “unfussed about their own safety and even less bothered about making friendsâ€.
Live, the band walk a tightrope: frenetic and unpredictable, sometimes confrontational: their exuberance can sometimes be misread and frontmen Rich & Lewis can quickly end up playing in amongst the crowd. A furious car crash of punk, rocksteady, reggae, psychedelia and blistering rock’n’roll, The Rank Deluxe’s sound is vibrant, honest and uncompromising
In January 2007 in a 4-page feature ‘The New Cross Code’, Time Out picked up on south-east London’s burgeoning, inclusive DIY arts scene (aka ‘Rocklands’), that has helped support Rank Deluxe and has spawned the Artful & Deptford X Festivals.
The band have been concentrating their energies on writing, and recording their debut album at Miloco Studios with Mark Rankin (Kate Nash, Adem), resurfacing only briefly for shows at the Camden Crawl in April, and the Great Escape in May, and playing a 10 week residency on their ‘home-turf’ at the New Cross Inn over the summer.
With the album in the can, early 2008 will see the band return to the fore with new releases and their most extensive live activity to date – watch this space.
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