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Peace: The Band Putting The Heart Into British Guitar Music

by Patrick Hough
17 October 2012 5 Comments

They've just released the first E.P to plaudits across the country; here's why they are making a mockery of sensationalist claims of the death of the great British guitar band...

The “guitar is dead”, screams the village idiot, son of the last fool to make such a ludicrous observation.  He cries over and over like a man stuck in the closet of his sexuality proclaiming his love for women and turning his nose up at those of a homosexual persuasion. “Guitar music is dead” he cries. See the guitar is a beautiful being. Like the body of a supermodel, it is rare that you will truely be able to touch one in its purist form but its still  there for all to admire. The soft curves and the beautiful colours. The sheer craftsmanship of it. “Guitar music is dead”. Thats what they’ve been saying recently.

Peace.  The ones who make the guitar sexy again. On stage they are effortless. Their genders are ambiguous and movements sexual, but this is all meaningless in rock n’ roll. You can have the supermodel aura but without the song you are nothing. But boy do Peace have the songs. EP Delicious is their first offering on Columbia Records, a four song collection that picks up where debut single ‘Follow Baby’-a Kasabian B side that knocks out a Kasabian A Side- left off. A quick and passionate one night stand in the bedrooms of all the idiots that said guitar music is dead. On Delicious they take things up a notch. Opener ‘Ocean’s Eye’ takes us on a journey through their twisted minds;  “Her blood dont taste the same”,  Harrison Koisser sings over a John Squire style lead guitar, before bursting into a chorus that shows the band’s real future potential. They share the stadium size dreams of Kasabian but the restrain of The Cure.

It’s the sharp edge shown on ‘Bloodshake’ that separates them from the Oasis wannabe lad rock seen in every other pub across the country. All sharp Foals-y guitar lines and creepy lyrics obsessed with blood and jungles that oozes passion and sexuality. They’ve come from a scene of hippy middle class chavs. They share a stage with their friends Swim Deep; optimistic to call it a scene, mind, it’s more a party in a renovated warehouse in Birminghams Digbeth area on a wet winter night. The romantics and the pretenders sway side by side as Peace provide the perfect soundtrack for drunken snogs wrapped up in vintage  winter coats.

As you move through the record, it’s ‘California Daze’, the show off piece on the collection, that really bites. Peace demonstrate a velvet side with a tune that shows elements of ‘A Certain Romance’ by Arctic Monkeys and hints of ‘Changes’ by David Bowie. It makes you want to call the girl who broke your heart when you were 16 and tell her you still love her. It makes you want to grab the boy you fancy in the local WHSmiths and give him the Hollywood ending he deserves.

If ‘Californian Daze’ is the passionate first kiss then Delicious’s closing track ’1998′ is the dirty fuck at the end of an all nighter. Clocking in over 10 minutes it swirls you round a rollercoaster of sound, all guitars and nonsense making sense in ways they say guitar music no longer does. The band are due to go in to the studio imminently to record their debut album with producer Jim Abyss, the man behind the mixing desk of the first Arctic Monkeys and Bombay Bicycle Club albums as well as Delicious. His expert production has helped shape the bands sound on these early recordings and they’ve stuck by an obviously winning formula  for their debut long player. Guitar music is dead they say; it still tastes Delicious to me.


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Chris 8:30 am, 17-Oct-2012

The death of guitar music is down to the fact there is no 'scene' for kids to get into. They're the ones buying the records and determining who and what gets played on radio. There hasn't been a scene since early 00's garage-rock revival with the libertines, white stripes etc

Frank 1:15 pm, 17-Oct-2012

Seriously they have a song called "Ocean Drive"??

Adam Steiner 1:42 pm, 17-Oct-2012

The look and sound of this band smacks of trying way too hard. The Mani-esque drumming, skinny riffs and utterly banal lyrics "forever" "baby" etc. It's all gone a bit 1990s, poor-man's Maccabees.

Bay Area Gooners 12:28 am, 18-Oct-2012

Wasn't all that impressed. Glad Adam mentioned The Maccabees. Their most recent album, "Given To The WIld" is brilliant and should satisfy anyone seeing music with "heart" and "guitars".

P Spaceman 8:56 pm, 18-Oct-2012

The first song left a lot to be desired. It was not original enough to be considered as 'putting the heart' into British guitar music. Whatever that is supposed to mean. I really had high hopes for the second track at the start. Very Loveless-y and this sort of carried on into the remainder of the song in PARTS. But the same bad habits seemed to creep into the song as a whole (do we REALLY need another band using those loathsome whispy voiced backing vocals???). Going off these two tracks, you're backing the wrong horse.

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