The Clientele

[bob_32_116]

I had never heard of this band, but I was intrigued by a track called "Losing Haringey" played on the radio. It's a very strange piece, basically a recitation of a story over a (very nice) instrumental backing, kind of in the vein of some of Bruce Cockburn's stuff, or a bit like "Perfect Life" by Steven Wilson.

Any information forthcoming on this band? Is this song typical/better/worse than their other stuff? Where to start investigating? etc. etc.

[moecurlythanu]

Hmm...There was a NWOBHM band called Clientele in the very early 80s, whose drummer had previously played in a Prog band (either As Above, So Below or Appletwig Cutter, I don't recall without looking it up.) I'm guessing that that's not who you are referring to?

[bob_32_116]

Since no info was forthcoming here, I did some searching, and no, this Clientele are definitely not NWOBHM, there is nothing H or M about them.

A cursory listen on Amazon previews suggests to me that they write very good melodic songs, but that they are perhaps a bit too much the same from one song to another. I listened to previews of all tracks on one album, and found myself thinking "That's nice... so is that... but where's the one with a bit of crunch?" The sort of band I might maybe want to own just one album of, no more.

There is a quite similar sounding Australian band called Knievel. Like Clientele, their songs are all very nice, but they do not vary their style much, if at all.

[bill g]

I have their cd, 'Strange Geometry'. I like them, and the reverb-drenched vocals used to nice effect. One of my favorite songs from the album was used at the intro to the movie, 'The Lake House', which surprised me when I saw it in the theatre. Not a lot of variety on the album, but definitely a nice album. They have a lot of stuff out. You don't want a 'crunch' tune, if you're listening to a Clientele album. It would spoil the melancholy mood, at least in my opinion.