Field Music

Recently, Sunderland four piece Field Music, went through a couple of line-up changes that saw brothers David and Peter Brewis, leave behind Tom English and Andrew Moore for Ian Black and Kevin Dosdale, two figures very much respected in the North East music scene.

Field Music, who have been quiet for nearly three years, decided to take a break from music after they felt that they were gaining too much popularity for poor work, and for myself, came as a shock, as Field Music, a band with a lot of talent, have written some pretty amazing work since their self titled debut album was released in 2005.

Since then the band have released 'Tones of Town' in 2007, and now plan to release their third effort early in the new year, entitled, 'Field Music (Measure)' - a double album which has a great piece of artwork on the front, if you haven't seen it yet.

Tonight's show is the second of two that the band have held at The Cluny as a sort of 'Hello, we're back' series of gigs, deputising new material and also re-exploring their past work before heading off to America and the rest of the UK for full length tours.

The show, as I said earlier, was a chance for the band to get a reaction to their new material, and in my opinion, it's some of their best yet. The song 'Measure' sounds completely refreshing, and so does a lot of their new material, but one thing can be noticed that the band are starting to take almost prog rock direction, which to my recollection, The Feeling tried, and failed miserably.

However, without trying to put anyone off, the pop sensibilities that the songs carry is enough to stop the songs becoming leaden, and offers a much livelier, almost danceable selection of music.

The highlights of the set however come from the band's highly regarded first two albums, with singles such as 'In Context', 'You're not supposed to' and the fabulous 'Shorter Shorter'.

Their previous material slides into their new set with complete ease, not detracting anything away from their new stance that they've taken - and with the new line-up, the band seem more confident than ever, delivering a really excellent performance.

Field Music have always been a cool, talented band, not wanting too much publicity or popularity, but with songs of such talent, and with new album that could well be the 'best album of the year already' contender, 2010 is shaping up to be an excellent year for them.

FUTURE GIGS