Cranes will play their first show in 11 years next month in their hometown of Portsmouth, with dates in London to follow. Originating from the nucleus of siblings Alison and Jim Shaw, from their first cassette only releases of the late 1980’s, to John Peel sessions, a Melody Maker front cover, to world tour support to The Cure on the Wish tour, onto limited edition releases featuring the use of lyrics by French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. In the new millennia they faded away, their last record in 2008, and by 2012 making their last appearances on a stage.
Cranes never really fitted in anywhere. They shone with uniqueness. "Imagine a small child singing lullabies at the bottom of the well” one U.S reviewer once wrote. Not shoegaze, and certainly not ‘dream pop’; this was not a term used in the early 1990’s. At times early in their career they certainly had an industrial grind, with thumping drumbeats, jagged guitar noise, as a key early song in their repertoire, Starblood illustrates. Often piano part accompaniment, in time replaced with flowing guitars and orchestration. For many, always with a deep sense of gothic undertow. Cranes just did their own thing, ethereal, at times otherworldly. Perhaps the soundtrack to magical dreams and fairy tales.
Debut album Wings of Joy was followed by Forever, with single Jewel mixed by Robert Smith and onto Loved. The more stripped down and acoustic Population 4, their 5th album, was the next studio album following their Sartre inspired La tragédie d'Oreste et Électre project. Population 4 would come to be their last major label funded album, via Dedicated (funded by BMG), a label upon which they counted Spiritualized among their peers. A tour began to promote the album. It was at this time that I met them in London pre-show for a conversation for Planet of Sound.
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