Joyzine could not be happier to premiere the single ‘Aviatrix’ for our readers. This is your first chance to hear the new single from The 3 Clubmen, a band/project comprised of Jen Olive, Stu Rowe and Andy Partridge. Yes, Andy Partridge, from Swindon’s finest XTC. This glorious tumble of ‘avant-pop’ is the first taste of their forthcoming eponymous EP which is coming out on June 30th.
There is much to say about the love that people have for Andy Partridge and the esteem in which XTC are held but this is not Andy Partridge featuring Jen Olive and Stu Rowe, this is The 3 Clubmen. The band have been working together on and off for a decade; on each other’s projects (as writers, producers, collaborators) and putting together material for The 3 Clubmen, but it’s the dedication and persistence of Stu Rowe and his label Lighterthief that we can thank for the tracks getting to our ears.
“Like an ‘action painter’ throws colour at a canvas, we tend to throw musical and sound things, knowing that we’ll cut through this seemingly insane mess later, to hopefully find some beautiful garden, hiding there,” Andy Partridge says “I throw paint, Jen throws paint, Stu throws paint…and we walk away. If, when we return, something in there calls to us, we’ll move heaven and earth to get it out and let it breath. Using whatever it takes, be it contrary musical ideas, parts in clashing keys incongruous sounds, contradictory words/phrases. It’s all clay to us.“
Stu Rowe says “The Clubmen project is something I’ve been messing about with for years – it’s the one thing that everyone who hears it says I should finish. It was great fun to make, and I think we’ve managed to create something really quite interesting between all three of our musical sensibilities,” and Jen Olive adds “The joy is it… so much humour… the lyrics reflect the spirit of the conversations… the call and response. There’s an ecstatic quality to it. it’s thrilling to have people share in that.“
An aviatrix, in its simplest definition, is a female pilot but the joyous and surreal lyrics, create a sense of playfulness, a lighter than air sensation that swoops and soars like its subject. for example “Build butter bridge for the aviatrix. Filled up the fridge with those flying food bricks. Sow all the roads with her burning brown mane. Throw out the doubts and deliver her dreaming head”.
‘Aviatrix’ owns the skies, with the sublime vocals held aloft by buoyant guitar lines, drums that dance around like the murmuration of starlings and flutes that could be a call and response with the dawn chorus. And on top are the delicious tandem vocals of Andy Partridge and Jen Olive whose voices mesh together at a quantum level and dance together like excited atoms. It also benefits from the crisp as Cox’s production from Stu Rowe.
I’ve always believed that bands with 3 members often produce the strongest material (the triangle is, after all, the strongest shape) and The 3 Clubmen are doing nothing to disprove my assertion. This is dazzling pop, seriously good fun, and when you get musicians as outstanding as this they can make the complex layers of voices and instruments seem as simple as a bird taking flight. If I were ever going to plan a heist it would be to break into Ape House and try and steal a listen at the forthcoming EP.
‘Aviatrix’ by The 3 Clubmen is released on Friday 28th April and you will be able to pre-order it from Burning Shed tomorrow.
The 3 Clubmen socials: Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram
Lighterthief links: Website | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube
Aviatrix lyrics:
AVIATRIX
Build butter bridge for the aviatrix
Filled up the fridge with those flying food bricks
Sow all the roads with her burning brown mane
Throw out the doubts
And deliver her dreaming head
Straight into the sun
You shoot me like a gun
I’m flying, flying (crying)
I’m coming undone
Notice the exits left and right
Notice the exits left and right
Your seat is a floatation device
Oxygen, oxygen, oxygen
Build offering for the aviatrix
Made like a bird out of canvas and sticks
(Flying, flying, flying, flying, flying)
Float on the breeze of her bawdy, blue laugh
Fly like a toy ‘round inside
Of her dreaming head
Straight into the sun
You shoot me like a gun
I’m flying, flying
I’m coming undone
Straight into the sun
You shoot me like a gun
I’m flying
Notice the exits left and right
Notice the exits left and right
Your seat is a floatation device
Notice the oxygen, notice the oxygen
Build butter bridge for the aviatrix
(Flying around inside her)
Made like a bird out of canvas and sticks
(Flying around inside her)
Flying around inside her…
Review by Paul F Cook
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