The Tenebrous Liar release a new single 'No Guiding Light' Backed with their version of Lee Hazlewoods 'Think I'm Coming Down' in September on 7" and Download, followed by a short tour and album 'Jackknifed And Slaughtered' in January.
Tenebrous originally came into being as a musical experiment for renowned music photographer Steve Gullick, after a while spent recording & playing shows with Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston and artist Geraldine Swayne under the name ...Bender, Gullick decided to try something outside of the ...bender aesthetic. The original solo experiments came out as an album entitled ‘Tenebrous’ in 2006 on Fire records, throughout 2005/6 Tenebrous continued the experiments live, collaborating with a host of musicians including Duke Garwood & Ed Harcourt, plus the poet Gerry Mitchell with whom they re
leased an album entitled ‘The Havering’ under the name of Tenebrous Mitchell on Fire records in early 2007. Tenebrous Liar as a ‘band’ was born during 2006 with a stabilised line-up consisting of Tony Ash & James Maiden on guitar, Pete Spiby on drums, Harcourt & Garwood floating in and out playing whatever they fancied & Gullick on guitar & vocals. Tenebrous Liar played a host of one off shows & recorded an album over a few days during December 2006, the sessions resulted in the ‘Tenebrous Liar’ album which was released during the summer of 2007 on Fire records.
“Imagine Lift To Experience stuck in the eternal damnation their songs tried to escape from, but with a result more ashcan reality than spiritually vivid.”
Drowned in Sound
"moody and intense, occasionally terrifyingly primal, country-blues soundscapings".
Time Out
“If Leonard Cohen brings a smile to your face and you are partial to a bit of low-fi then Tenebrous Liar is the band for you.”
The Sun
The band was joined for shows around the time ‘Tenebrous Liar’ was released by Alex Brown who filled in for Harcourt & Garwood who needed to concentrate on their own work, she added an exciting new dynamic & voice to the band. Support slots with Soulsavers & Josh T. Pearson followed & introduced TL to a wider audience.
Tenebrous Liar’s Last Stand:
Having met Richard Warren (best known for his work with Spiritualized, Soulsavers & Echoboy) whilst playing with Soulsavers, TL approached him to record their new album, it was decided to record thirteen songs in one day, so at the end of March 2008 in a London rehearsal room, Rich set up the microphones & the 8 track reel to reel tape machine & set about recording the bones of the album in a single thirteen hour recording session, a few overdubs were recorded at home & the resulting album, ‘Tenebrous Liar’s Last Stand’ was released by TV records to critical acclaim in October.
“brooding songs, fusing Cohen, Earth and the more dissonant aspects of Queens of the Stone Age and, whisper it, Nirvana - a raging slab of aural murk that brings to mind the same unease a Halloween jaunt round an abandoned asylum might.
Rock – A - Rolla
“their music is dark, demented, and deliberate, characterized by murky, lo-fi, feedback-drenched guitars and sludgy rhythms that heave like a spluttering locomotive – gloom-laiden, world-weary vocals, conjuring up hints of Codeine, Flipper, and Pavement.”
The Big Takeover USA
“In an intimate Soho club, Tenebrous Liar make a stand for mavericks everywhere. The rotating members, centred around mouthpiece Steve Gullick, tailor their exquisite avant-garde Americana to suit the occasion, with a living music that fills every corner of the room”
NME
"Musically their second album Last Stand recalls Shellac, Liars and Nirvana at their most bloody-minded and amusical."
The Quietus
"Dinosaur Jr meets Nirvana's In Utero – yep, it's not pretty and it sure ain't going to win any Brit awards, but its macabre melancholy is stunningly executed, complete with jagged Velvet Underground guitar."
Selby Times
"Tenebrous Liar’s Last Stand is at it’s best during the slowest moments, when the guitars are drawn out in all their dark, jagged, droning, menacing glory; the vocals almost playing second fiddle, but reinforcing the darkness and the feeling of vast emptiness and unknowns that the provocative artwork of an inky skyline and menacing forest first invokes."
Subba Culture
"From the hyperactive two-short-plank riffing of early Nirvana, to Dinosaur Jr’s laconic fuzz-splurges, to Mudhoney’s sack-o-bricks lurches and Tad and The Melvins’ ear sludge, the album ‘Tenebrous Liar’s Last Stand’, from his band Tenebrous Liar, is a veritable inventory of that era in American underground music. And not just that, it’s catalogued damn well and in such a way that they can probably count Nick Cave’s Grinderman and whatever band Mark Lanegan is involved in this week as current peers."
Crud Magazine
"It comes across as such an organic album. Whilst it won’t be charging up the charts any time soon, this is a record which, given time, will grow in both sound and stature. And there just aren’t enough of those around these days."
isthismusic.com
"The band's second album, Last Stand, at times recalls the miserable post-punk of Joy Division and occasionally the lo-fi indie of Slint's brilliant Spiderland."
The Skinny
Between recording & releasing ‘Last Stand’, TL was joined by the multi-instrumental Brendan Casey to hold down the bottom end on bass. To coincide with the release, the band embarked upon their first proper tour taking in new towns & leaving audiences shell-shocked with their blistering intensity. The year ended with more live shows, including some high profile performances in support of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
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