Ever wondered what Adam Betts from Three Trapped Tigers gets up to when he’s not whipping up a storm behind the kit for the intense London math-rock trio? A lot of it involves Emperor Yes, but they’re far more than just a side project for him. They’re a vessel for some mightily impressive psychedelic pop, and have been building up quite a following since Betts hooked up with Ash Gardner (noted producer and man of many talents) and ex-Summer Camp man Hugo Sheppard in 2011. Sheppard’s former bandmate Jeremy Warmsley produced their debut single ‘Cosmos‘ early last year, and things have been busy for the trio since.
They’ve set up camp somewhere between Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips, and write music with hooks so big that they’re probably visible from space, which would probably suit the band down to the ground, since their lyrics are concerned with other worlds and fantastical tales. The album opens with a major-key track about ‘The End of the World‘, while the quasi-instrumental ‘Intergalactic Quarantine‘ combines bruising riffs and hyperactive drumming with spaced-out samples and the general feeling that its creators are off in another world. ‘Carl Sagan‘ pays tribute to the eponymous American astronomer. A special vinyl release of the album even contained bits of a 16th-century meteorite. No, seriously, look at the thing.
There’s no question that, for them, space is the place to be, but their debut is the work of a band with their heads in the clouds and their feet planted firmly on the ground; an effervescent pop record that puts the ‘odd’ in odyssey. It’s every bit as uplifting as you might expect, too. Despite ‘Cosmos‘ ruminating on humanity’s insignificance in the grand scheme of things, closer ‘Fishes‘ is an ode to the indomitability of the human spirit (“We can make anything happen / We can make anything reality“), and ‘Paramesse to Tanis‘ is one of the most euphoric songs of its kind to come along in quite a while, its irresistible synth hook and kaleidoscopic chorus ensuring that it has high replay value. What’s more, the band sum up their raison d’être in a single line; “If you help me, there’s nothing we cannot do” is their rallying cry, and this attitude has resulted in a record that displays the unique stamp of three very talented individuals. An Island Called Earth is a remarkable debut, shot through with the feeling that Emperor Yes are setting themselves up for an exciting future. One could say that the sky’s the limit for them. (Sorry. I’ll get my coat.)
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