Scope

Pre-Scope Bang! discography:
Scope were in music what "cinemascope" was to cinema: retro and futuristic at the same time ("Yesterday's Future Now!")... Deeply rooted in the "Pop-Art" soundstyle of the early Who and the minimalist Hard-Pop Beat riffin' of the Troggs, they had a 'kaleidoscope' of influences (... including modern day Indie Pop like the T.V. Personnalities and the Times) but tried to play "Free Rock", just like jazzmen when they wanted to improvise "Free Jazz", only... in the confines of Rock'n'Roll. Formed from the ashes of the late "Bang!" (who had 3 seven inches out, two on Corduroy from Australia
Discography:
- Compilation LP: «A Tribute to the Original PEBBLES series vol.1 to 10» (Not BFD, France 2005) feat. «Action Woman»
- mini album CD: «A Secret Revolution» (Superstar Records; a division of BEATBALL Music, Corea August 2005!)
http://www.beatballrecords.com
Now available on ebay!!!:
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SCOPE - A secret revolution / mini album (Beatball; 2005) /H2
Among a chosen circle of fans, this is one of THE long awaited debuts. Some of you might remember them under their previous disguise of Bang!, a name the graces some super cool picture sleeves of the three singles released on Teen Sound/Misty Lane and Corduroy. If their initial moddish pop art aesthetics, delivered through power-chords, fuzzy solos, Ox-ish bass bravados, Moon-iacal rhythms, with Shel Talmy?s shadow all over the place, seems like what you might call your own cup of tea, then you?re in for another twenty-plus minutes of your life. Actually some of the Bang! tracks are present in their newly recorded superior versions, like the opening title tune, which gets a full-blown re-Creation, sometimes reminding us of what might?ve happened had Eddie Phillips accepted Pete Townshand?s (supposed) invitation to join his band, just as it?s the case with another Bang-ing piece of ?66/?67 Who-mor called "The unknown band", or the quirky little Entwistling tale about "Roger the quiet". "Yeah! and "Closet pop star (included as a CD bonus track) is a pair of tunes that could?ve been heard on last year?s demo-CD, here given an updated fuzz-laden-audio-pop-artistry treatment, and what?s left are the two covers of which the first one is the post-mod heavy Britsike arrangement of The Litter/Electras nugget "Action woman", and the other one is a pretty cool choice of the Fresh Windows ?67 MODernistic single b-side "Fashion conscious".
An additional tiny little detail that should be mentioned, is the beautifully designed, fold out, super-hard cardboard slipcase, making this an absolute collectors item, and is also another proof of the band?s utter dedication to the concept.
Goran Obradovic c/o Popism
http://www.torpedopop.com
THE SCOPE-Secret Revolution CD EP
From France (via the label in South Korea) come The Scope. At a first listen they come off as a rough and ready freakbeat trio. Freakbeat is a genre rarely tapped into. England’s own champions The Embrooks make a career out of it and before them The Aardvarks and in the U.S.A. NY/NJ’s lads The Insomniacs and Minneapolis,MN’s fortunate sons The Conquerors dabble in it, but a band who tackles it head on is rare. The Scope come across like a less rehearsed/awkward Embrooks. “A Secret Revolution” is the lead off and title cut, full of raw chords, thunderous military march drumming et al. It’s catchy and takes me back to the 80’s when I was happily scarfing up comp LPs to hear gems by U.K. 60’s acts like The Barrier or The Lovin’. Easily it’s the best of the lot. There’s a cover of U.S. 60’s garage icon “Action Woman”, which does little for me. “Yeah” comes on like a leering fuzz/wah wah number from the 60’s but it’s a band original, and not half bad. “The Unknown Band” is pure Bob Garnerled era Creation type stuff and then the band covers The Fresh Windows U.K. 60’s pop-psych Carnabetian classic “Fashion Concious” (which for some reason is credited to none other than S. Barrett ?). All in all a decent band who with time will get even better. One wonders what they’d sound like if they went over the pond to Toe Rag to lay down the next platter with Mole(Embrooks) producing?!?! How bout it?
© Bill Luther 2005 - 2007 [Published 13 November 2005]
http://www.uppers.org
SCOPE - A Secret Revolution (Beatball/Superstars; MiniCD)
The Embrooks may be no more, but Scope have emerged to carry on the Freakbeat tradition. My first impressions of this seven song CD were that the band were influenced strongly by the early Who and Troggs, and then I found a sleeve insert in which the band admit to be 'deeply rooted in the 'pop art' soundstyle of the early Who and the minimalist hard-pop beat-riffin' of The Troggs'.
The self-penned title track is a fine opener with some good singing from drummer Erwan and neat guitar from Astro. Of the two covers, there is a fine version of The Fresh Windows' 'Fashion Conscious', which is just the kind of tune you would expect them to cover, but 'Action Woman' is a revelation. The 60's US garage classic is radically reinterpreted in the style of a '67 UK Freakbeat band; 'Pebbles' covered by 'Rubbles' no less!
Korean label Beatball really understand that people won't forsake CDs for downloads if they are presented with a really nice artefact. This CD comes in a cardboard sleeve even thicker than those US 60's LP covers, with an insert booklet and a pape inner sleeve with yet more groovy pictures. Sleeve designer Dirty Harry deserves a name check.
Phil Suggitt
http://www.shindig-magazine.com/reviews-may2006-2.html

Check out this amateur film "Blow Up" style by Amanda Rubinstein 2006 :

Check out this clip shoot during one of our rehearsals; a live rendition of an original track by ex. singer/drummer boy Erwan: "The Boy With The Doll" in the style of British post-Mod freakBeatin' Psych:

Demo Clip shot by Sophie Levy on October 2006 with the group hit: "The Unknown Band":

Official endorsing Scope site: