By Tyler Ody
Lensmen Release their LP Somewhere Somewhere
The latest release and first LP from Stroud based quartet Lensmen hits all platforms on Friday 2nd December. A nine track labour of love that saw the band build their own studio and collaborate with the likes of Edward Upton (DMX Krew) and Simon Edwards (Talk Talk, Beth Gibbons). A lock down project that forced the band to creatively work their way around sound engineering and production obstacles to uniquely combine musical motifs with spoken word. All mastered by the wonderful and Grammy winning Shawn Joseph
Lensmen formed in 2016 by Dan Fisher (keyboards), Gavin McClafferty (bass),Jason Wilkinson (drums) and Alun Hughes (vocals). Lensmen are a dark and atmospheric group who confront their audience with a raw and visceral vision of the future. Deeply rooted in the darker moments of rock’s tortured past drawing influences from post punk, new wave and psychedelia. The name is derived from the legendary liquid lights which were a feature of Hawkwind’s mind-warping live shows in the early 1970s. But while they admit to the occasional psychedelic wigout onstage it’s the words that remain front and centre.
Front man and award winning poet Alun Hughes had been on an intense journey during lockdown writing and publishing the pamphlet Down The Heavens which forms the backbone to the LP.
The themes are very much drawn from their home town but reflect global concerns. Sometimes Al’s talking about going to the supermarket like in How Late It Waswhere the checkouts print living wills… a harsh critique of our consumerist times. Other tracks such as Cloud As A Hawk are simple tales of cloud busting but with a real kicker in the tail. The final track Oaken closes on a dubwise vibe, and is a reflection on how the slave trade is woven into their landscape of Stroud, in the Cotswolds… the Brits of old, forced off their land by the lords into poverty, had to rent back the land they had subsisted on for years… In order to pay those rents they went abroad to steal to feed the landed thieves back home. This inequity is seen in every wall and every tree of our landscape…
“we feel it, we learn and we try and share it to”.
This is a deep and serious work and we’re really proud of it and would dearly love it if you could help us find our audience.
1/ Techno Pets (2:19)
2/ Crow Time (4:13)
3/ How Late it Was (3:28)
4/ Course To Naming A Brook (4:15)
5/ Sonic Reel For The Sea (3:11)
6/ Threshold Blues (3:40)
7/ Dear Brook (3:00)
8/ Cloud As A Hawk (4:49)
9/ Oaken (5:22)
Words From The Band
Alun Hughes (vocals)
“In 2019, in response to the climate emergency and my decision to study the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, I had begun listening to an area of disused agricultural land near to my home called The Heavens. It is land full of history and last saw agricultural activity in the shape of a cow herd in 2016. Since then, without grazing, the fields are becoming exquisite meadows and the woodland and hedges gradually seed themselves into the field edge. Along one of the paths, a grove of fifty oak seedlings stands.
This is the place that gifted the inspiration which formed into a group of poems that earnt me a MA with Distinction in 2020. I received a prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2021 for The Course to Naming a Brook that features on somewhere somewhere. The final selection of poems make up my pamphlet collection, Down the Heavens which was published by Yew Tree Press in July 2022. Some have also been shortlisted for the Laurie Lee Prize for Writing.
My choice for the poems that feature on somewhere somewhere represent the foundational themes of the pamphlet and ones that continue to inspire me. From the techno consumerism side of the apocalyptic state of the ecosystem, our relationship with the land that holds us to what the land required me to sing of it and the times we are living through, these nine poems are my offering to an album which, I dearly hope, helps to reflect on the troubles and offers something towards a pro creative balance with our home”.
Jason Wilkinson (drums / percussion)
“Limitations, are a good thing. They aid creative processes, unlock synapses and command a different set of disciplines. Our shortcomings were obvious when we proposed making an album featuring a body of both spoken and sung words, initially written as part of a poetry collection, which we didn’t want to be merely set against music or accompanied by it, but wrapped up in it as equal partners on the soundstage.
As we didn’t know its sonic form or shape, we understood that to experiment with this new narrative format, we’d need the luxury of endless studio time alongside creative control over recorded parts and final structures, which were all ultimately informed by Al’s poetic forms, stanzas and meter. The only feasible option was to take the dauntingly uncertain path to shoestring finance and build a studio and record the whole thing ourselves. After renting a small rehearsal space and soundproofing it, basic second hand equipment began arriving and I started to navigate my way through Reaper, the brilliant free-source DAW that we recorded into (thank you “uncle” Kenny Gioia at Reaper Mania YouTube channel for all those outstanding tutorials).
From the outset we decided to use the computer both as a writing tool and as an instrument in its own right, experimenting with sounds, distortions and pitches. The notion was to not be prescriptive but to serve the track and to this end we appointed Gav as our musical director, to be the creative barometer, to help cut out the fat of self-indulgence. Using several Sylvia Massy techniques we recorded in a variety of innovative ways. Initially demo’s and guide tracks were laid down live. I rigged up aRoland SPD SX drum sampler with extra external drum pads to allow me to play live into the computer along with the band. We then spent a lot of time listening back, discussing versions and directions, guided by Al’s comprehension of his words, the emotions, the setting, from which arrangements sprouted, sometimes out of the briefest few seconds of recorded gold or, as in the case with Oaken, a complete track played live in one take. Once an idea was settled upon, out of recording constraints we overdubbed new live instrument parts, live drums and percussion and vocals all separately. I would spend hours picking through these parts, manipulating their textures to effect and In this way we developed not only a new language but a new way of writing it.
We started with 30 distinct track ideas and parted ways with all but 9. Over the two years it took to hone these skills and techniques for our first album, we learnt the value of brutal honesty amongst ourselves as a tool to better our playing, speak our truths and gain the courage to push boundaries and conventions. I’d like to think these qualities are evident in the final production, a plaque to self-belief and dogged self-determination”.