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Guitar/Vocals – Sel Balamir BIOG 2011/12
AMPLIFIER October 2011
With a sound that draws as much from post-rock’s modernity as it does from the classic space rock grooves of the past, Amplifier’s resurgence into the music scene with 2011’s ‘The Octopus’ was not just a celebratory success story of sticking it to ‘the man’, but testament to the dogged determination that drives this unique Mancunian trio ever onwards. In the near 14 years of their existence, Amplifier have suffered from more than their fair share of the kind of pitfalls that the music industry can throw at a band, defiantly stuck two fingers up to the perceived manner of doing business and set about creating their own music for themselves and their fans. For an alternative band unafraid to toy with rock conventions, it was a steadfastly punk rock way of doing their own business. Then again, there has always been something special that sets Amplifier apart. I first crossed paths with the band within months of them forming in 1998, and even then the stand-out song of their early sets was a song called Motorhead. Not the Lemmy-penned song of the same name, but their own dizzying space/prog/metal/alternative anthem that still crops up in their live set today. A youthful display of the unyielding belief that has fired Sel Balamir, Neil Mahony and Matt Brobin (the same trio who make up Amplifier today) to the point where they can dictate their career on their own terms. Initially, Amplifier secured a deal with the classic label Music For Nations, who released the band’s incredibly well received self-titled debut album in 2004. Within weeks, the label had been bought out by the larger Sony/BMG corporation who deemed the likes of Amplifier surplus to requirements. Undaunted, the band secured the rights to ‘Amplifier’ and set about a new deal with German label SPV. For them, Amplifier recorded the ‘The Astronaut Dismantles HAL’ EP in 2005 and second full-length album ‘Insider’. SPV went bust. If this actually sounds a bit like the building of Camelot sketch from Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie, then that’s because it’s a pretty good description of the machinations of the music industry that have, in 2011, pretty much brought it to its collective knees. Amplifier, however, are made of sterner stuff. “At that point we decided ‘Fuck it, we’ll just go back to being how we were before we even had a record deal’,” Balamir told me when The Octopus was released. And that’s exactly what the band have done. Taking control of every facet of their career, they answer to no one but themselves and their fans. The results have been nothing short of spectacular. ‘The Octopus’, a gargantuan, spellbinding two-album journey sets Amplifier up as forerunners of a new approach in alt/progressive music. Ditching the stereotypical and often parodied sprawling excess of the past, but retaining a prodigious talent and a refusal to be bowed by perceived convention, they forge not just a new path for themselves, but spearhead an approach which has seen alt/progressive music have a vibrant new life breathed into it. If truth be told, Amplifier in 2011 are as exciting a prospect as they were when I first clapped eyes and ears on them back in 1998. The reason being that all the same qualities that made them such an attractive proposition back then hold true today. To have persevered in the face of adversity and hold true to your own ideals is not a trait to be sniffed at. The world remains their proverbial oyster. This time around watch them grab it with style. Jerry Ewing Chief Editor: Classic Rock Presents Prog
BIOG 2010/11
As most of Manchester sleeps, three men work through the night in a giant Victorian mill building. As the dawn breaks and the city begins to stir they continue to sweat and toil in an unlikely continuance of the giant red-brick edifice’s industrial past. But replacing the roar of looms, belts and flywheels they – Sel Balamir, Matt Brobin and Neil Mahony – make music with guitars, drums and bass. Sel has arrived in Manchester from London, Matt from Wales and Neil from Ireland. Together they are Amplifier and they are giving life to The Octopus. Ostensibly The Octopus is the third album by the band, but to Sel, Matt and Neil is it much more. It has taken them three years to make and they’ve financed it themselves, without any record company support (or interference), and so the results of their labours are huge in scale and panoramic in scope. For a start, its 16 songs run together into a concept piece lasting just over two hours and so spreads across two CDs or three discs of vinyl. Songwriter and spokesman Sel is under no illusions: “A record company would have insisted we release it as two separate albums. We talked about doing that ourselves – because we’d probably make twice as much money – but to us the aesthetic way it’s received is more important. Putting it out like this is a statement.” That statement extends far beyond the music, to include the commitment and self-belief that have fuelled the band since they came close to splitting following the release of their second album, Insider, in 2006. “It got to the point after Insider that we were going to quit but once we made that decision we just said, ‘Okay, but we’ll carry on – but just like the olden days when we were just doing it for fun. Once we made that decision everyone was there again. “This is just the three of us in a room, maybe starting at 2am and just playing all through the night, then listening back to it, enjoying it. All the things that sounded pleasing were good and became what it is. That’s it – but that wasn’t even a plan.” No plan but slowly, bit by bit, the idea came together… Not only the music for The Octopus – but also a book written by Sel (a special edition, limited to 500 copies and dedicated by hand by the band, will be available as a 70-page CD book detailing The Octopus). The book goes some way to explaining The Octopus referencing the human condition, infinity and entropy, everything and nothing. It’s at least as big a trip as the music itself. “We spent a year just jamming, pretty much. Doing a lot of listening along the way. It’s a winnowing process. We’re slow! It would have been faster with dogs chasing us, but that’s what A&R is, right?” “I remember exactly the occasion we got the title for it, which was in 2005. Me and Neil were having one of our late night ‘conversations’ in our old rehearsal room. We were just bemoaning the stereotypes of popular culture – it wasn’t a very generous conversation – and we were listening to this song by a techno DJ called Laurent Garnier (aka DJ Pedro of Hacienda fame) and it was something that had this really deep, throbbing and hypnotic sound to it… Neil decided it was like the sound of a big octopus that had attached itself around your head and was piloting you around… That’s exactly where the title and concept came from.” Also on some tracks, guesting on his piano is 19-year-old Manchester based musician Charlie Barnes. His textures add yet another dimension to already multi-faceted sound of The Octopus. “It’s really good having someone like Charlie come into the studio with us. He’s really young and vibrant and that rubs off on us.” Utilising Charlie was part of the ongoing development of the band. It’s an ethos as simple as it is productive: “We have a commitment to excellence. That’s what Amplifier is – everything to the best of our abilities.” It was that commitment, and a whole career-full of bad luck that saw them turn their back on the idea of a formal record deal and go wholly independent. “We’ve had four record deals and every one of them has always ended with us thinking, we just don’t want to do it like this anymore. There’s nothing more demoralising than working on something for a long time and then just giving it away, which is essentially what happens. I cannot get any of our old records back. In order to sell them off our website I have to first buy them myself. I find that really galling.” The band formed in 1998 and after a couple of singles debuted with a self-titled effort on Music For Nations in 2004. The album was almost universally applauded… "A British rock-scene altering record. Enjoy it in all it's infinite glory" Kerrang! 5/5 "No other record this year will have the audacity to field such lofty ambitions, let alone have the skills to fulfill them" NME 9/10 "Think trippy, heavy as fuck sonic violence. Think the future of rock" Metal Hammer 9/10 "At present British rock doesn't get much better than this" Q 4/5 …but then things started to unravel. MFN were bought out by Sony and in fear of being swamped the band bought back the rights to the record and looked for a new deal. In 2005 they signed to SPV (Germany) and that year released an EP The Astronaut Dismantles HAL. In 2006 they consider themselves rushed into completing a second album, Insider, released on SPV’s Steamhammer label. That name seems ironic to Sel: “Insider was made under the hammer so that’s what the format of the songs are like. For that reason alone we determined that we didn’t want to sign another deal to do The Octopus…” Having made the decision to go it alone an sell it off their website, Amplifier tested the theory in 2009 with the Eternity mini album, a collection of older songs that had never seen the light of day. A limited edition of 1,000 sold out quickly, lapped up by a fan-base that has been a major source of support and stretches as far as Japan and South America. A new convert is Pete Townshend’s brother-in-law Jon Astley who mastered The Octopus. Longer-term fans include one of those who writes incidental music for TV’s Dr Who, and a bunch of NASA technicians who regularly listen to the first album while assembling the payloads to be sent to the space station. Amplifier fans are a disparate bunch but they all agree on one thing: Sel: “Fans come up to us and say, ‘I don’t understand how you’re not massive!’. To which I always say, ‘I don’t understand it, either!’.” That may be about to change. “The Octopus is very much a reaction to the album before it, Insider, and all the constraints – time limits, pressures, deadlines, requests for a single – that were put on us. We hated that. But when we did The Octopus there were no constraints. Well, just one – and that whatever it came out as, we needed to be 100 per cent proud of it.” They are and they should be. The Octopus is a major work that will impress all who hear it now and for years to come.
BIOG 2008
SATAN AMPS presents the new…. Here at SatanAmp we take amplifier design very seriously. So seriously in fact, that this time we decided to take a fundamentally different approach to the way that we considered looking at designing and indeed building a new amplifier. For us it was all about one thing: the sound. We wanted to start with that sound and work backwards from there until we had built something that would not only be able to create that sound but would be able to deliver it too: from the unbelievably low bottom right up to the unfathomably high top! Not content with using the materials available to other manufacturers, we ventured far out into the cosmos to source the best that space-flotsam had to offer. The interaction between these new materials and our atmosphere demanded that we come up with a new way for amplifiers to amplify. And boy did we do it. Read on….. So here it is. An amplifier to end all amplifiers. A new design to which all future designs will be compared. People will ask: How does it work? What’s that bit for? And, why is it so big? But before all these questions will come another question: what does it sound like? If you think you are ready to find out, then click here [you must have Photon-Reblend (PR) software installed. For installation, click here] or alternatively go to your nearest SatanAmp stockist [for a list of dealers, click here].
Tech-stuff. By building our chassis out of patented Micro-Crystal Alu-Oxide (MCAO) and coating the lacquer-coated finish with a hi-gloss dual-action melanin block we’ve taken amplifier design into and beyond the twenty first century: all in the name of tone! Our new Three-Channel Multi-Tonal (TCMT) Operating System (OS) offers never-heard-before sonic manipulation that’s never been heard before. Channel 1 is sparkly clean with un-precedented high-end clarity, enough for any discerning player who likes his or her bass to come with built–in treble. By routing all of the tone through Ardox-X filtration filters none of the subtle nuances of your playing are lost. Channel 2 is the real ‘goat’s bladder’ of the amp: this is where it all happens. Macro-Dermolastyl Thermo-Volumising Pearl Protein (MDTVPP) tubes are set in quasi-ceramic tube-sets, sealed with our unique Vitabiotic Tone Seal (VTS) to deliver the smoothest drive ever on any channel 2 of any amp ever. At least any amp that’s ever been made. But then with Channel 3 things really start to hot up. By combining our new Light Reflecting Booster (LRB) circuit with the excess Renovistic Glycol Acid (RGA) squeezed through from channel 1 and the surplus patented Super-Stay (SS) fed-back from channel 2, the Co-Resistium Technology (CRT) we’ve employed here allows up to 85% more rock in almost every application! Lastly our PAF (patent applied for) Multi-Input Cardioid-Emulator (MICE) gets the best out of all pick-up styles: from the old Nanosome Conductors on your favourite P-Bass right up to the most modern Blu-Tooth (BT) wireless models that won’t even be invented until spring 2009. This is not an amplifier to be approached with anything other than awe. And fear. Fear for your hearing and fear for your childrens’ souls when they hear the demon-summoning mega-power of even the fruitiest of jazz flourishes. This amp kills babies without even having the footswitch plugged in! So, don your favourite armour plated earmuffs, dig out your best titanium plectrum and head straight to hell to try out the amplifier that will rip out your heart and steal your soul! [Parents please note: packaging may also be dangerous.]
Recommended Retail Price: $your soul.
2006
BIOG 2005
But in the meantime, here's some tits. I mean, what we looked like....
BIOG 2004 AMPLIFIER arrive in a seismic heartbeat. Armed with choruses more akin to detonations and an album joyous in its darkness AMPLIFIER are British rock reborn, post-classic rock if you will. A band that didn’t so much form as gravitate together at the beginning of the new century in Manchester, coalescing from DNA strands of Celtic spark & Byzantine motive. Ready to roll. Evolving from an arsenal of treasured teenage records; AMPLIFIER take Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Police, Mogwai, Massive Attack, Bowie and Brad – in fact just about anything of any quality, and exhale it through a cloudburst of guitar pickups and distortion pedals. A three year gestation period culminated in 2004's debut album co-produced by Sel Balamir with Steve Lyon (The Cure, Depeche Mode) and mixed by Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, My Vitriol, Feeder). Selling 5000 albums in the UK, stoking up a frenzy of Summer Festivals and shows with the likes of Deftones, Datsuns, Melissa Auf der Maur, Therapy?, Explosions In The Sky and Oceansize, all while gathering extreme praise from Radio 1, XFM, NME, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and Q, AMPLIFIER are now Airborne in Europe. Already No. 7 in the Visions Reader Poll for Best Newcomer after just a handful of European dates, AMPLIFIER are "rolling forward". The May European release of their startling debut album through SPV and the anticipation of more tours are further heating up expectation. To put you in the picture: AMPLIFIER carve out their own unique way; deeply personal lyrics astride a raging wall of noise channelled through intensely articulate and sky-high melodies - a fractured powerhouse celebration of all the good things about rock. As another drum fill thunders through, those who care might well reflect upon the ghosts of Keith Moon and John Bonham, as they’re carried along upon thick waves of colossal rolling guitar riffs and absorbed into the throbbing hum of a deep, deep, deep sea of electrical bass. AMPLIFIER make music that’s both determined and ambitious, but most importantly, whether recorded or live, music that lives and grows on the band’s terms: revved up & brutal from the get-go. When AMPLIFIER sing “it’s time to fly” you’re on their wings. If the initial effect is to make people step back, slightly awed, then their hurricane also possesses that area of tranquil calm and beauty around which swirl the great outpourings of energy. It is music that needs to be performed: Electrifying live shows over the last 18 months have left audiences feeling like they’ve been involved in a 40 minute controlled explosion, and AMPLIFIER's reputation rising fast. “AMPLIFIER descend like a pocket apocalypse…Great free-flowing grooves transforming sunburst waves of uplift” Roger Morton NME "A British rock-scene altering record. Enjoy it in all it's infinite glory" Kerrang! 5/5 "No other record this year will have the audacity to field such lofty ambitions, let alone have the skills to fulfill them" NME 9/10 "Think Sabbath meets Floyd meets The God Machine. Think trippy, heavy as fuck sonic violence. Think the future of rock" Metal Hammer 9/10 "At present British rock doesn't get much better than this" Q 4/5 AMPLIFIER: the biggest three piece in the world.
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