When you’re holed up in a cottage in deepest darkest Fife with only herbal-remedies (Chinese-Tea) and array of instruments and ideas for company… oh, and not forgetting one of the most enigmatic veteran underground indie producers in the form of ‘Kramer’, you’re assured of creating something unique and extraordinary.
Ambulances are a sextet hailing from Fife made up of experienced musicians who were determinedly working away on material before serendipity and telecommunication played a part in the collaboration between them and their venerated producer: since then they’ve quietly made inroads into Scotland’s music scene, garnering favourable press and admiration along the way.
‘The Future That Was’ treads a fine line between dream-pop, shoegaze and psychedelia as every track flows with a warmth and diaphanous sheen that can be effortlessly easygoing albeit with an underlying lyrical darkness and mysterious aloofness. The brief opening track ‘Come With Us’ drifts along with almost country stylings and group harmonies before ‘What I Thought Of’ kicks off with a drum intro that takes your breath away – such deftness of touch highlights the delicacy and complexity of ostensibly simple tracks as layers of harmonies and lead guitar riffs build but don’t detract from any other element.
‘Three’ and ‘I Miss Berlitz’ takes a slowcore-esque chord progressions mixed with droning guitars over a melancholic spoken word-like delivery. ‘Hired Hand’s subtle intones convey bitter sweet lyrics such as “I don’t need cancer, I know just what it does, I believe we can make it through with love” with a romantic yearning: “In the middle a low and you just can’t find your feet, and picking yourself up is no minor feat, everyday I’m lost, tell me what’s the cost, of a dream”.
‘Whoa’ utilizes the band’s female vocalist Sarah Colston to the full and is the embodiment of their psychedelic dream-pop, replete with strange sampled vocals in the background and atmospheric screeching guitar.
The album continues to fuse these elements, ‘How Could You Leave Me’ has a forlorn wistful feel while ‘Cease To Exist’ proves the perfect distillation of their sound (check out the almost satirically surreal video accompanying it), with singer guitarist Chris Miezitis lazy drawl juxtaposed by Sarah’s luxurious vocal refrain of “Put on the back foot…put on the back foot boy” dripping over the verse like honey bestowed from a higher plain.
‘Rainy Night’ sets a breezy soundtrack to a perplexed plaintive plea against mortality itself – “Here’s a little incision too improve your condition it will hurt for a second so the doctors reckons”, “It’s a friend of my mother didn’t discover the cure for cancer in my dying father” delivered with a melancholic bitter edge by guitarist and vocalist Scott Lyon in an emotive and emotionally fraught manner as the refrain “and it’s a raining hard…and it’s late at night” fades out in this touching sorrowful song.
Album closer ‘Last Night’ draws on all the aforementioned elements together in glorious fashion with beautiful harmonies and marauding lead guitar, finishing the album on a high note.
The whole album flows impeccably grasping your attention while lyrically intertwining introspective and obscure elements with plentiful harmonies and breezy guitars, as apposed to most psychedelic compositions, Ambulances imbue a sense of pithy timing and succinct pop, belying its scathing lyrical bite. There’s so much going on under the surface, whether it be off-kilter percussion, samples, delicately-picked guitars or smooth backing vocals, all perfectly mixed as the blend of instruments, subtle squalls of feedback, and abundant harmonies converge into a perfect patchwork of soundscapes, proving there’s a unison and accord with every one converging on the same wavelength. As a result it’s an album that begs repeated listen to get the most out of.
The DIY spirit that runs through their music, methods and overall M.O. speaks volumes, whisking the fabled legendary producer Kramer (at his behest) from sunny L.A. to a tiny cottage in the back of beyond, ploughing through the album recording in eight days and on the back of that, no record label backing and little P.R. – instead relying on online buzz and word of mouth, which has fair traveled, winning approval from the likes of Vic Galloway and Mary Reilly and currying favour with personnel heroes like Fife based Beta Band luminary Steve Mason and a support slot with Can’s Damo Suzuki.
As the critics subsume the likes of Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes into the pastoral-tinged psychedelic fold, there surely couldn’t be a better time for their richly layered dream-pop to swirl into the public’s consciousness.
