The Earlies - These Were The Earlies (2004)

"Wayward Song" by The Earlies


When John Mark Lapham shopped around Micah P. Hinson's demos in the US and England, he'd also shop around the work of his own band The Earlies.

The Earlies started recording songs together in the late 90s and eventually released their debut album, a collection of early EPs, These Were The Earlies in 2004. 2004 also marked the first time the band could say they were all together in the same room. The strange case of The Earlies had two of its members, JM Lapham (drums, effects, loops) and Brandon Carr (guitar, vocals), living in Texas and the other two members, Giles Hatton (sequencer, effects) and Christian Madden (multi-instrumentalist) living in England. They met through their previous independent projects; Lapham's Autio and Giles Hatton's Atomic Clock both released work on the short-lived Beatnik Records. This small connection was enough to foster an Atlantic-bridging relationship that would spawn music, basically, via pen-palling.

The Earlies found a UK record deal with 679 Recordings and moved the outfit to England. They'd get a US record deal in 2006 with Secretly Canadian (label for previous artist David Vandervelde). The Earlies music on their debut is when electronic music meets progressive rock. They record the instruments drunk, or at least slightly tipsy, in order to give the performances a looser feel. Sober, they work on the production, layering all of the different musical elements. The lyrics are simple and delivered in a half-singing voice by Brandon Carr. When the group brings harmonies into the mix, the vocals take on a mantric quality. The Earlies, however, are at their best when the vocals, and music in general, are at their most minimal. Like in the beautiful "Slow Man's Dream" and "Wayward Song", the use of only a slowly building, ambient electronic composition and a woodwind or two shows that The Earlies make beautiful and ambitious music even on a limited palette.

Here is the discography surrounding The Earlies's debut album:

King (1999 single by Autio)
Bullgoose Loony (1999 single by Atomic Clock)
25 Easy Pieces (2002 single)
Song for #3 (2002 single)
The First Sound of The Earlies - A Recollection of Early Tracks (2003 download)
Wayward Song (2003 EP)
These Were The Earlies
Morning Wonder (2004 single)
The Earlies in The Devil's Country (2004 EP)
Bring It Back Again (2005 single)
I've Been Waiting (2005 single by Sara Lowes and The Earlies)

"Morning Wonder" by The Earlies


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!