Thing of the Day
Lilies On Mars wish you were a pony...
March 12th 2011
Lilies
On Mars have a new album, and an Organ presented launch gig to go with
it, and in the build up to all, Lilies will be our guests on our
Resonance 104.4 FM radio show this Sunday night, playing tracks from the
album and talking about it….
LILIES ON MARS
– Wish You
Were A Pony (Elsewhere Factory) – Lilies On
Mars are delightful, they’re as delightful as giant talking fish in
aquariums, as flowers growing in strange places, as swirling colours
playing games with your ears, Lilies On Mars are delightful.
They’re a London-based three piece, two girls from Italy, one boy on
drums from, well we’re not sure. Lilies On Mars are sugar sweet but
never sickly, never twee, they have a very light touch, sometimes
lightly swirling psychedelia, sometimes leaning more towards a glorious
shoegazing flavour, always deliciously soothing guitars, at times
wonderfully dreamy, always innocently sparse and positively lo-fi in
just the right way. There’s some very clever details in there though,
the three of them are in control of a rather crafted rather full sound,
this isn’t lo-fi in a messy throwaway sense, lots of time and
consideration here in the strange little fairytales, nothing loose or
accidental, no feeling of just letting it flow and seeing what happens,
everything feels controlled and considered, everything feels right. And
they sound like they’re constantly amazed by the things around them,
the joy of life, the bright shining pleasure of creating together, of
just doing, the joy of sound, of making music by hand - there really
are some beautiful details here, delicious analogue keyboard lead
lines, accomplished guitar textures, voices and tunes that keep
catching smiling
ears…
“Lilies on Mars are a
three-piece experimental shoegaze band based in London, comprised of
Lisa Masia, Marina Cristofalo and Matthew Parker. Lisa and Marina met
over ten years ago and were the touring and film collaborators of
Italian icon Franco Battiato before forming Lilies on Mars in August
2008”. Fascinated by the spirit of DIY,
they produced, mixed and self-released their debut album in
April 2009. Shortly after, they 
debuted live at La Cigale
Theatre in Paris with Franco Battiato and continued touring on their
own in UK, Italy, Germany and USA for the whole 2009/beginning 2010.
Following collaborations with various musicians, Lisa and Marina
welcomed Matthew Parker (ex-Sunny Day Sets Dire) to join them on the
drums. In June 2010, the 3-piece band spent two weeks recording their
second album which will be available in 2011” - so reads
their biography.
The second album is just right, Lilies On Mars were good before but the inspiringly titled Wish You Were A Pony feels like a few steps further in terms of songs, sounds, in terms of everything. That doesn’t mean the three of them have lost any of the early delight, that innocent warmth, just a case of having better songs, more depth, more colour, a confident variety, just more of everything, a sound and an identity all of their own forming around those delicate Italian accents and those guitars and keyboard lines. The sound and the songs might just be a little sweet and for some ears, if you don’t like sugar in your tea or too many sweets before tea, if you like you guitars aggressive rather than you vocals childlike, then this isn’t really going to be for you – that isn’t to say there isn’t the occasional bit of meat in those guitars of those words and voices. Mostly Lilies are the sound of delicate hazy sunshine, of bits of strange folk, a gentle out-of-this-world glow, an ethereal otherness, a hint of the European exotic, subdued electronica, dreamy films, refreshing washes of reverb and all kinds of different landscapes. Keys to magic boxes, secret doors, dreamy places, inviting places, nothing sounds like it might be coming slowly undone and their Angry Lullaby anything but angry even if it does add an extra dimension of toughness to the end of the proceedings. Wish You Were A Pony is a rather beautiful, rather magical, rather different album, Lilies of Mars are a rather different, rather magical, rather special band, worth taking the time to explore their world and find out why… www.liliesonmars.com
Lilies On Mars will be our guests on Organ radio show this
coming Sunday March 13th at 9pm on London’s Resonance 104.4FM. Hear
tracks from the album and the band talking with us about them via FM in
London or via the web world wide – www.resonancefm.com
Organ & LondonGigs present an Elsewhere Factory night with LILIES ON MARS
Lilies On Mars have a launch party for their album, presented by us
here at Organ in collaboration with LondonGigs.net,
over at the Victoria, Dalston, London, E8.
LILIES ON MARS will be playing live with DJs and support from THE LAST DINOSAUR.
Home Alone DJ after the bands, films, art...
The Victoria is situated within 5 mins walk of Dalston Kingsland,
Dalston Junction and Hackney Downs stations. 6 buses stop on the
doorstep - 242 (24 hr), 277 (24 hr), 236, 30, 56 and 38 /
N38. Unbeknown to almost everyone, through a door at the side
of the bar is a rather fine venue... Door price: £5, £2.50 with a flyer
or on the guest list £1 if you bring a sketchbook and use it...
Links:
LILIES ON MARS - www.liliesonmars.com/
THE LAST DINOSAUR - www.thelastdinosaur.co.uk/
LondonGigs - londongigs.net/
ELSEWHERE FACTORY - www.elsewherefactory.com/
HOME ALONE BEATS - www.homealonebeats.com/
THE VICTORIA, DALSTON - www.facebook.com/vicdalston
Facebook event page facebook.com/event
Lilies On Mars video:
