Public Servant Lifestyle

Singer-songwriter John Bramwell returns with his merry band of troubadours I Am Kloot - and a second albums' worth of first rate new tunes.

I Am Kloot by I Am Kloot

North-West trio I Am Kloot - John Bramwell (words, voice and guitar), Andy Hargreaves (drums), Pete Jobson (bass guitar) - latest signings to the Echo Label – have released a brand new eponymous album. And it’s a corker!

"Johnny Bramwell from I Am Kloot is one of the four most talented songwriters this country has produced in the last ten years..." - Pete Doherty (Babyshambles).

The new album features twelve brilliant new tracks – only one of which (Proof, which made a b-side appearance as a demo last year) has ever been released before – represents the next step in this band’s quiet climb towards universal acclaim. Recorded over six months with producer Chris Potter, this release follows on from the band’s single releases earlier this year - Life In A Day and the strictly limited edition 7” only release of Untitled #1 – both of which feature on the long-player and is the eagerly awaited follow up to their fabulous 2001 debut album, Natural History.

As usual for the three-piece, all the actual tracks have been written by John Harold Arnold Bramwell. This is the same native of Hyde, Greater Manchester who used to trade under the name Johnny Dangerously - a nickname supposedly coined after a near miss accident onstage at a London venue, back in his solo troubadour days.

Johnny Dangerously

In this earlier incarnation Mr. Bramwell (pictured, left) toured - all over the country as well as the North-West - bringing his own particular brand of often melancholic commentary on that myriad of subjects beloved of songwriters: life, love, sheet metal workers...

The germs of a number of tracks on the group’s first album could be seen in these solo performances – during which the man ‘Dangerously would often spin one-off improvised songs from scratch, based on audience suggestions called out from the crowd. He would appear playing with swing bands, youth orchestras, on his own or accompanied by a single guitarist - whatever suited the occassion.

Madchester

He also produced a very fine mini-album - the wonderful and tragically under exposed You, Me And The Alarm Clock – and created a Manchester anthem in the solo single Black And Blue – which deserves to be remembered alongside the likes of James, Inspiral Carpets, The Happy Monday’s, The Waltones, Stone Roses, Man From Delmonte and New Order as the highlights of the late 80’s Manchester music scene. The fact that those great songs aren’t popping up on compilations the world over is testament to a missed chance for music lovers everywhere. Long, long overdue for a CD re-issue methinks...

Following a spell where Johnny found a home singing and playing with Manc. act The Mouth, I Am Kloot formed in Manchester around four years ago, making their live debut at the city’s Night and Day Cafe venue in the summer of 1999. After a handful of live shows - which were attracting the attention of locals and critics alike - they were quickly snapped up by Manchester’s Ugly Man label, who released their debut 7” single Titanic/To You in November of that year. By the time that came out the band were playing regular live dates in London and already many were tipping the group as ones to watch for 2000.

"There's Blood On Your Legs...I Love You"

They followed Titanic - a song featuring the haunting refrain: "There's Blood On Your Legs...I Love You" - with 86 TV’s/Twist on Valentines Day 2000. A nice little romantic gesture! Soon after the band signed to Wall Of Sound’s new offshoot We Love You, after featuring on the label’s We Love You...So Love Us label compilation.

A string of brilliant singles - and soon to be debut album tracks - Morning Rain and Dark Star, followed and in early 2001 they released thei album Natural History to much excitement. At long last - a new full-length reease of new Bramwell-penned songs!

Critically acclaimed as one of the finest debut albums of the year, it more than confirmed their early promise as one of the best new bands around. Constant touring - with a live show that is both unsettling and engaging - soon saw the group attracting widespread regard in the U.K. and across Europe.

Debut single To You featured on ‘Rough Trade’s 'Best of' 25 Years anniversary compilation and I Am Kloot ended the year with a triumphant sold out date at London’s Scala.

Back in the present, the band have this year completed a UK tour as the special guests of Turin Brakes, opening for them and - by all accounts - stealing the crown from the main act, wowing a whole new audience with their own unique brand of acoustic tuneage. They followed that by accepting an invitation to play at the NME ‘Brats’ show at London’s Astoria, after which they set off on their first UK headline tour in over a year in May and June.

If the reception they received at these dates is anything to go by – and the fact that touts were asking for, and getting, upwards of £80 for a pair of tickets outside one of the smaller venues they played, for an £8.00 ticket price – this band are heading onwards and upwards.

The Chameleons

Closer to the sound of fellow Manchester act The Chameleons, but with more of a hearty acoustic, melancholic streak the band swoop from swooning pop tunes (From Your Favourite Sky) to what comes across as haunting post-relationship fallout on Not A Reasonable Man and pretty much all shades in between.

Single Life In A Day – apparently words improvised around an improvised riff in rehearsals – is rockier and more raucous than the rest of the tracks, while 3 Feet Tall comes over all smooth and Beatles-y, with definite shades of the Revolver album, here managing to bypass the obvious plodding approach of fellow Mancs, Oasis. No small feet with a sound so loved and so much imitated!

Cold War

Here For The World is drenched in film score style guitars (reminiscent of the score for ace Cold War Michael Caine picture Funeral In Berlin), while The Same Deep Water As Me is all melancholy and regret.

The album’s full track listing looks like this:

The Deep Blue Sea, Untitled #1, From Your Favourite Sky, Life In A Day, Here For The World, A Strange Arrangement Of Colour, Cuckoo, Mermaids, Proof, Sold As Seen, Not A Reasonable Man, 3 Feet Tall and The Same Deep Water As Me.

Fresh from dates in Ireland and Belgium ‘Kloot are making a return to British stages to showcase the new long-player, and show the opposition (if, let’s be honest, there really is any) how it’s really done.

I Am Kloot by I Am Kloot is available now, as a CD and – for vinyl junkies - as two versions of limited edition double vinyl – one of two white LP’s, the other as plain black vinyl, on the Echo label.

The band’s 2001 debut album Natural History is still available – on We Love You Records. The mini-LP You, Me And The Alarm Clock is nigh on impossible to get hold of now – but searching those second-hand record shops might just produce a find that you’ll want to leave your grandchildren. And they will thank you for it.

Twelve tracks across two discs on the LP format – and not a trick missed. This is a real treat for the ears. See them live, hear them on record, but do hear them, whatever else you do. This is a band where great words meet great melodies – more of a rarity on the record racks than you might think. What else do you need? In a music scene that seems rarely a respecter of quality, ‘Kloot are here for the world. Why not listen to a slice of theirs? Make it a double CD next time though, eh Johnny?

Here's what the critics have been saying about I Am Kloot:

“Head and shoulders above most of the competition...Rarely has a lack of popular success been so baffling." - The Metro newspaper.

"...if critical plaudits were album sales I Am Kloot would be pulled along in carriages made of gold records..." – London listings magazine Time Out.

“This collection makes clear that their main themes of death, inadequacy and most things hopeless have barely changed over the decade...Here the band sounds more heart wrecked than ever. Even when the drums do come tumbling, as on Life In A Day, the band sounds like the Stone Roses on a death trip. A seriously melancholy yet utterly delicate and beautiful decade indeed." Clash Magazine (reviewing The BBC Sessions CD).

"Everyday epics from another one-time busker; the very small but enormously talented Johnny Bramwell, the frontman of the best band to come out of Manchester in the last twenty years." - The Independent newspaper (22/01/07)

John Harold Arnold Bramwell – a (selected) discography

Johnny Dangerously with deBuchias - Introducing Jane - 12" three track single (Village Records, 1990)
Johnny Dangerously solo - You, Me and the Alarm Clock 12” vinyl only six-track mini album (1988?)
The Mouth - Bang/Never On Time 7" (1995)
I Am Kloot - Titanic/To You 7” (1999)
I Am Kloot - Natural History – CD, LP (2001)
I Am Kloot - I Am Kloot CD, LP (2003) – initially available as black and white double vinyl discs.
I Am Kloot - Gods And Monsters – CD, LP and 2-DISC CD/DVD (live at The Ritz 2003, plus promotional clips) double pack (2005)
I Am Kloot - Over My Shoulder - 2x7” featuring different b-sides: Junk Culture and Stop Taking Photographs - two tracks that only otherwise appear as extras on the Pony Canyon release of Gods and Monsters in Japan. Apart from being great tracks in themselves fans with long memories might recall an earlier solo version of Junk Culture from the You, Me and the Alarm Clock record.
I Am Kloot - Maybe I Should - 7”, CD and download
I Am Kloot - BBC Radio 1 John Peel Sessions CD
I Am Kloot - I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge - limited edition digipack (of 2,000) live CD recorded at Stockport's Moolah Rouge studios, initially only available at concerts in Autumn 2007 - going for big sums on eBay. (2007)

For more information you could do a lot worse than check out: www.iamkloot.com – which features pictures taken at recent gigs, sound clips, guitar chords and song lyrics, links to video interview material, a full discography and all the up to date news and tour/release dates you could need.

I Am Kloot by I Am Kloot is available now, on Echo.

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