Still House Plants album launch show + Ailie Ormston + Tom Mudd
There might be no Counterflows Festival this year, but we’re super pleased to announce this special show for one of our long-term Counterflows friends: the mighty Still House Plants!
Opening for them on the night will be Ailie Ormston, who will be presenting new work for guitar, cello, electronics and double bass. And Tom Mudd, who will present his recent Guitar Cultures work, which was a big favourite of ours in 2023.
The show takes place on the 19th of April at Fairfield Working Men’s Club (205 Crossloan Rd, Govan, Glasgow G51 3QD). The venue is step free and wheelchair friendly.
Many will remember Still House Plants’ first time on the Counterflows Festival stage back in 2016. Since then its been a joy seeing them going from strength to strength; touring the world and releasing a slew of great records.
This show welcomes co-incides with the launch of their new album ‘If I don’t make it, I love u’, the fullest embodiment of their songs to date. Where Fast Edit formed with quick attachment and jump cuts, ‘If I don’t make it’ is shaped by persistence – a staying with that makes the music solid, warmer, accepted.
Marking the trios’ decade of friendship and written whilst living in the same city for the first time since Assemblages, the band rehearsed this record relentlessly for shows that never happened, in a space now disappeared. Playing for nobody except themselves consistently built support for one another, and grew the way they played. Jess’ voice is deeper. Fin’s guitar is full size, richer. David drums harder. Focused on one point together, everyone is bigger and nothing falls apart. The guitar and the drums blend, raise the voice, make room for what is being said, what is felt.
When able to finally record, production allowed layers, gave elasticity, a chance to fully stretch. Playing with length and connections, the band brought in analogue techniques – a Lesley cabinet on ‘Headlight’, sidechaining the snare with the guitar, pushing vocals through cheap DJ software – each process an attempt to bring one instrument closer to another, give bass, body, backup. ‘If I don’t make it, I love u’ seeks beauty, holds feeling maximum, and builds surety with its sound. The most generous SHP record to date, the music is wide open, demands less. Play it again, it will come clear.
