Club Zero

Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club return with their fourth album, The Joy Of The Return. Opening to an energetic blend of driving drums and infectious guitar lines, the opening track builds through evocative verses and anthemic choruses, imbued with their idiosyncratic brand of insightful and confronting lyricism and set against relentlessly danceable and energy-provoking instrumentation. “‘All I Hear’ is about a lack of agency and an inability to affect change. That there’s something happening, and you have no choice but to go along with it,” explains singer Aaron Starkie.

Zero 7 is a downtempo act comprising Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker from the United Kingdom. The band’s songs feature vocals from Mozez, Sia Furler, Tina Dico, Sophie Barker and José González.

On 23rd April 2001 they released their debut album, Simple Things, to wide acclaim. The album featured collaborations with vocalists Mozez, Sia Furler, and Sophie Barker.

On 1st March 2004 they released their second album, When It Falls. In addition to the three vocalists from their first album, it also featured a collaboration with Tina Dico. In the same year, Binns also co-wrote the Emma Bunton track Breathing from her second solo album.

Their third album The Garden was released on 22nd May 2006 and features José González and Sia Furler. It is a departure from the trip-hop sound that defined their first two albums, Simple Things and When It Falls. The Garden has much more of an acoustic rather than electronic flavour to it. The Garden is also notable in that it marks the vocal debut of Henry Binns; and while he doesn’t want the record to be defined by such a fact, it does add another personality to the mix. He duets on PlayThrow It All Away, PlayThis Fine Social Scene and PlayWaiting to Die, and sings solo on PlayYour Place.

However, if there is one fact that Henry and Sam don’t want people to be confused by, it is the title of the album, The Garden. Taken from the album artwork, which is a series of collages designed by a friend of theirs, entitled, spookily enough, The Garden, the duo are keen for the album’s meaning not to get lost in translation.