Engineers

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
ENGINEERS Engineers (2005 UK 11-track CD album produced by Dave Bascombe which creates music of immense depth and scope that combines the experimental with the emotional featuring the singles Come in Out of the Rain and Forgiveness picture sleeve ECHCD61)

AMAZON
For this, their self-titled debut, the Wigan four-piece Engineers have constructed an album that's majestic and epic, one which manages to be grandiose, but with no delusions of grandeur. Rather than the short, sharp shocks employed by many of their contemporaries, Engineers are content to let a song build slowly, adding layers of sound while keeping their slow, dreamy pace. It's a beautiful and symphonic album, owing a debt to their two self-confessed influences: Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue. Meanwhile, songs like "Home" and "Forgiveness" slot comfortably alongside the likes of the Doves, Elbow or Spiritualised. Occasionally, as on "Thrasher" or "One in Seven", they even sneak in a bit of My Bloody Valentine shoe-gazing, using fuzzed-up electric guitars instead of the strings and keyboards that threaten to engulf the entire album. And if this album has one flaw, that's it: it's relentlessly laid-back and blissed-out pace means that the songs too often blend into one another, or fade into the background altogether. But at least they only ever sound like themselves. --Robert Burrow

REVIEW
Dreamy newcomers the Engineers are one band who defiantly refuse to give in to the current trend of British guitar based groups. Singer Simon Phipps has already made this crystal clear by declaring his burning desire to avoid sounding like anyone else or anything contemporary. He believes substance is much more important than style.

Going by this self-titled debut, it's fair to say his band are a million miles away from your Franz Ferdinands, Razorlights or Kaiser Chiefs. Instead, this London-based quartet opt for a sound more suited to the star-gazing school of Sigur Rós, Brian Eno and My Bloody Valentine.

Right from the choral opener "Home" to the guitar driven "One In Seven", the Engineers have undoubtedly crafted 11 sweet sounding melodies. While the band could easily be criticised for failing to alter the pace throughout, there is no denying their ability to produce epic songs such as the floating lullaby "Forgiveness" or uplifting stand out anthems like "Come In Out Of The Rain".

Much of the album -which was put together with the help of former Tears For Fears producer Dave Bascombe - is driven by Phipps' moody vocals which are at timessoothing ("Waved On") and elsewhere sombre ("Said And Done"). Although nearly every song follows the same slow building pattern, backed up by either gentle guitar chords or smooth strings, there a couple of surprises here in the form of the trippy "Let's Just See" and the slightly hard-edged "Thrasher"; the latter being considerably softer than its title suggests, despite the fact that it's probably the record's heaviest number.

Right now there are very few albums around in which nearly every song sounds as good as the last, but this is one of them. This is, without doubt, star-gazing music at its sweetest. --Damian Jones

Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window











See more

Number of Discs: 1

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.