The Departure
Like many of rockfeedback’s initial discoveries, our introduction to The Departure was close to home.
While housing a Basement Club at the start of 2004 featuring present music-scene slayers Bloc Party, we were greeted by an affable trendoid named David. He had a band, apparently. He said they were getting interest from record-labels like Parlophone. He passed us a five-track demo-CD and press-pack (the latter amusingly containing a newspaper article on soccer-stadiums, and a series of melodramatic mood-shots of the band-members). He declared his enjoyment of his evening with us, walked on out, and that was that.
Of course, we expected twat-all. Then – the news hit. A buzz-band called The Departure had signed to Parlophone. Oops, wrong were we in our cynical presumption of young David’s intent.
But, can we be blamed? The band had only been formed for a mere three months. But, having said that, if we’d been more astute, we’d have predicted that such a five-piece (vox: David Jones / guitars: Sam and Lee / bass: Ben / Simon: drums) of mutual art and pop sensibility and panache could be massive; Interpol-ian guitars and distinctly British/Suede vocal mispronunciations, wrapped in a deeply warming, yet somehow isolated, ambience that recalls the drama of Depeche Mode or Joy Division.
Yet this package is youthful, now and hauntingly tuneful. The Departure can make you dance, The Departure can make you cry. We think they’ve got hit-singles poised up their sleeves – the brooding live-set opener and Shadows-guitar twangs of ‘Enemy’, the infectious Rapture groove of debut-single ‘All Mapped Out’, and the, well, Bloc Party-isms of an epic ‘Only Human’ (well, that’s what we guess the title is from the initial recording).
But for all the lazy cross-referencing, whatever, The Departure are an implicitly blessed formula that’ll enrich your life, an escape from your dismal routine; this they know. Now you do, too.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: As you’d expect from a band partial to a bit of morbid clothing adventure, The Departure’s website is as to-the-point, welcoming and gloomy as Satan’s undergarments.
PARLOPHONE: Parlophone, the quintet newcomers’ label, has apparently founded and cultivated a long line of successful British talent.
VIDEO: See the video for the band’s debut-single ‘All Mapped Out’ as follows – (Real Video): LO-RES / HI-RES / (Windows Media): LO-RES / HI-RES
TOUR-DATES 2004: As follows, the list of UK dates you can see the five-piece gyrating and singing at:
6 July – Colchester, Arts Centre (supporting The Killers)
7 July – Northampton, The Soundhaus (supporting The Killers)
10 July – Edinburgh, T-in-the-Park
11 July – Dublin, Oxegen
27 Aug – Reading, Reading Carling Festival
28 Aug – Leeds, Leeds Carling Festival