Not many groups get to carve out their own own path and identity, or are even capable of doing so. Most are content – I suspect consciously, though they’d always deny it – to follow with a happy band of fellow travellers, all the better for mutual publicity and mutual big-ups in the backstage of music festivals. Liars on the other hand, over the past decade and a bit, have constantly challenged both themselves and their fans – not with about turns and surprises (they’ve always had a consistent thread through what they do), but with constant bold leaps forward and fast (proud) evolutions that don’t always wait for Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross to have mastered their music-making tools. By doing this they’ve probably made things hard for themselves along the way, but this determination and ambition means that, over the course of seven albums, Liars have stood head and shoulders over pretty much all of their contemporaries.
When you look at Angus Andrew’s Baker’s Dozen, it’s perhaps hardly surprising that their music has such "where did that come from?" heft. His love of hip hop makes complete sense when you consider how, especially live, Liars’ vocal assault is staccato and shouted, rarely sung. Then there’s the inclusion of OMD and The Cure (Liars have always been a smart pop group, albeit an unusual and warped one), and artists who sail a course that veers between the leftfield and the mainstream such as PJ Harvey and Underworld. You also get the unhinged, unselfconscious, fashion-proof Liars in an un-ironic (Liars set fire to vogueish irony) appreciation of The Doors and smooth jazzer Michael Franks. Anyway, enough of that – get cracking with Angus Andrew’s Baker’s Dozen by clicking the picture of the man below. Note that Liars will be releasing a limited edition version of ‘Mess On A Mission’ embedded with coloured string for Record Store Day, for more info on that and new album Mess go here and for their forthcoming tour dates go here.
