Consumer Electronics’ bitter and acerbic Estuary English was one of the Quietus’ favourites of 2014, with our review saying it was "the sound of repulsion and disgust at the last 30 years… With the Thames estuary now rising as a potential UKIP heartland, this record sounds timely. If there was ever a time to be disgusted, surely this is it." This week, Philip Best and Sarah Froelich will play London and Colchester for the final time before they depart from English shores and move to Texas. They’ll be joined at both dates by Russell Haswell, who produced Estuary English and adds extra defiant menace to the Consumer Electronics live show. They play 93 Feet East in London on Wednesday, January 14 (tickets here) and Colchester Arts Centre on Friday 16 (tickets here). We dropped Philip Best a line to ask about the dates and future plans:
How was 2014 for Consumer Electronics? What was the highlight?
Philip Best: It was a great year for us and as highlights go duelling with irate Sleaford Mods fans at the 100 Club was hard to beat. The police ending our performance at London Contemporary Music Festival was the definite low point.
Did you have any kind of mission/plan for Estuary English, and did you feel you achieved it?
PB: We achieved absolutely everything we wanted on Estuary English – in simple terms a state of the nation jeremiad crossbred with an honest catalogue of my own numerous personal failings.
I believe you’re moving to the USA this year. Why is that? Is it a reaction to your frustration with the state of England?
PB: We’re relocating to Austin, Texas. It’s always good to shake things up and we’re looking forward to continuing as a band in a challenging, new environment.
What future plans do you have?
PB: I’m delighted to say Russell will be joining us for both our final London show and our swansong at Colchester Arts Centre. We’ve been professionally recording all the Estuary English live shows and the plan is to release them all as a ridiculously expansive Estuary English – Legacy Edition box set. As a general rule I despise archival releases but I like the idea that an album that originally ran for 22 minutes could spawn such a monster. That aside, we have a 12" due on Diagonal next month and are working with Russ to finish another album before we set sail.
