Group AD tease cinematic debut EP with ‘Colour Space Transform’
Leeds seems to be churning out some of the country’s most exciting live acts at the moment, and Group AD, standing for The Group For Action & Dance, is one of the latest that you just can’t miss. Having only played two gigs so far, it might seem like the band is only in the fertile early stages of their career, but they’ve already released a handful of singles that suggest otherwise.
Now, they have released ‘Colour Space Transform’, teasing their debut EP of the same name, which arrives on March 27th. What’s special about Group AD is their ability to immerse you in a sonic landscape that feels lifted from another era, one that only exists in your memory. Maybe you’ve been, maybe it was just a dream, because there’s familiarity here, anchored in the band’s homage to cinematic strings from a bygone era of silver screen worship, mixed with pulsating synths and 1980s-influenced guitars.
Turn ‘Colour Space Transform’ up loud, and you’ll feel like you’re moving through time, starting with a waltz and moving into something more dramatic. Guitars that sound like they’ve been lifted from a ‘60s spy movie sit alongside riffs that rip and warp against a steady beat, a slightly robotic voice communicating with us calmly.
It’s like we’ve been kidnapped and placed inside a ship that’s shooting us into a dimension unknown, this voice the sound of our steady captor. Who’s talking to us? Where are they taking us?
We might be getting sent into the past, or maybe the future, tethered by nostalgia. Group AD wants us to keep guessing.
Their first gig last year, a sold-out ‘In the Round’ performance at Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen, was proof that Group AD aren’t going to release anything without making a sound; this project is ready to cut through the noise. There was a definitive buzz in the air as people gathered around the 360 set-up, lights flashing as bodies squashed into the space to see what the hype was all about.
With their second gig seeing them support English Teacher at their sold-out O2 Academy show, Group AD have already asserted themselves as a stellar live act, allowing their use of sampling to give the effect of entering a film, with everyone around you suddenly becoming extras.
“In the words of the electronic pioneer Daphne Oram, we’re ‘looking back… to see ahead,’” says the group’s Aidan Razzall. That’s the ethos that sums up the latest track, which is tethered in an in-between space, gorgeous strings undercut by the richness of the guitars, the tempo of the track fluctuating like a ballet, simmering, refraining, and ultimately building to a satisfying end.
There’s something so elusive about Group AD, but if one thing’s for certain, it’s that they’ve got big things coming their way. ‘Colour Space Transform’ is an exciting taste of what’s to come, all you have to do is trust in where they’re taking you, wherever that might be.
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