WU LYF: "Go Tell Fire To The Mountain" and MIF tunnel 'happening' July 16

 

So WU LYF have been thrust, faux-reluctantly, into the limelight with praise raining down on them heavier than a tropical monsoon over Whitefield. They've defiantly played it their own way thus far, with the strict ethos of 'less is more' when it comes to information on the band.

As an economics teacher might put it, it soon became a case of demand outweighing supply, creating a frenzy of excitement around this latest Manc/Bury bunch, as people clamber around to find out exactly who are the brains behind the band. 

Well that much we do know but it's not so important an issue needs to be made – other than to sound the irony alarm when the band moans in overly shrill tones about the irrelevance of this city's musical heritage.

At the end of the day and of the festival it's the music we are here for, right? And with but a handful of live dates to their name, several statements released via their website and just a partially masked photo of some people who may or may not even be in the band anyway, Wulyf keep the secrecy part of the deal pretty tight, leaving us with an enigmatic YouTube presence, ten songs and a tunnel show to go by.

With the release of the debut album, some barriers at least had to be seen to be lowered; the band fully revealed as four piece with a keyboards, guitar, bass drums set up. In case you didn't know, WU LYF actually stands for World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, hinting at a band ethos more akin to an underground movement than some sundry guitar band off the conveyor belt.

It's a great way to make your fans feel involved alright, even if its nothing new, with nineties examples like Nation Of Ulysees from Washington DC issuing various manifestos to ensure a cult reception for each release, while older readers might well be versed in the likes of Redskins, Gang of Four and Crass, although Manic Street Preachers would be a better comparison if only for the playing of the outsider card with little else of coherence, as yet, to back it up.

Only when a band has been hyped to the point of boredom as in WU LYF's case, does 'backing it up' become remotely important and so to the music it is! Opener "LYF" has rich Hammond organ sounds, suitably aided by the recording environment of a church in Ancoats where the bulk of this album was made.
It's a melodic little blast combining jangly guitars, and Ellery Roberts's  raspy vocal tones. "Cave Song" has more riff-led guitar accompanying Ellery's half singing, half shouting-til-he's-hoarse vocals which rise above the melody.

Intentional or not, each track is less verse/chorus/verse and more like a movement of melodies which rises and falls throughout. Layers of sound build up in tunes like "Such A Sad Puppy Dog" and "Spitting Blood", with guitar melodies weaving in and out of each other, while "Summas Bliss" and "We Bros" have more of a summer disco feel along the lines of Friendly Fires, Foals etc... all off kilter rhythms and chiming guitars, but matched with the Hammond sounds and those vocal shouts, putting WULYF in a rarified league.

"Dirt" commences with pounding toms and cymbals jostling with those cavernous guitar sounds and Hammond chords for pole position – it's a more sparse sounding tune which along with "Concrete Gold" show more subtlety in the songwriting whilst still keeping things melodic and layered with sound.

"Heavy Pop" is another slow builder incorporating guitar chimes riding over the top, and although most of the time you've no idea what Ellery's on about, that's no crime in itself and it's the conviction of his vocal delivery that carries undeniable punch in each song on this debut.

If you'd never read anything about this lot before, you'd be surprised at how good a debut this is, whereas if you'd chanced along to their MIF closing curtain underneath Central Station you'd have thought: why don't they sort the sound out?

Mike Joyce, John Robb and some folks with even bluer rinses at least stayed til the end of an anti-climactic Saturday night but you couldn't honestly cut the atmosphere with anything cos there wasn't much of it to cut.

SO: for resurrections of all that's great about music rolled into one The Chimp as a jury is definitely divided. Let's wait and see what transpires for what, if nothing else, is another promising young Mancunian band. We don't want Hell's Grannies Shirley and Doris – credited on the sleevenotes next to James Baldwin and Alesandro Del Piero – paying us a surprise visit, after all.

Paula Gregory (earphones) and Alex Griffiths (nearly four quid your half a lager)