Public Service Broadcasting – The War Room EP

Music Week: “This duo are bringing the past up to date whilst sounding like they belong in 2012.”

Janice Long, BBC Radio 2: “Amazing, I absolutely love it – fantastic!”

Gideon Coe, BBC 6Music: “A splendid piece of work.”

Frank Skinner, Absolute Radio: “I love this.”

Granted unique access to propaganda films from WWII-era Britain by the BFI and setting them to new music, Public Service Broadcasting unveil ‘The War Room EP’. Expect breathtaking visuals, atmospheric synths, pounding drums, Krautrock guitars and poignant piano as J. Willgoose, Esq and his drumming companion Wrigglesworth teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future…

The 5-track EP takes a look at the war from a British perspective – taking in the preparations for war in the foreboding ‘If War Should Come’, proudly boasting during the Blitz that ‘London Can Take It’, and emphasising the importance of the home front in ‘Dig For Victory’.

Lead track ‘Spitfire’ – a driving, motorik Krautrock influenced tune – is an adaptation of the 1942 Leslie Howard film ‘The First of the Few’, telling the story of the origins of the talismanic fighter. Howard was viewed by Josef Goebbels as the most dangerous British propagandist of the era and his own life was to end in tragedy when the passenger plane he was travelling on in 1943 was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay.

The War Room is dedicated to J. Willgoose, Esq.’s great-uncle, George Willgoose, who died at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940 aged 26. The final track of the EP, ‘Waltz for George’, is a sombre close to affairs, featuring the banjolele owned and played by George Willgoose which has remained in the family.

This EP is a follow-up to the band’s first single, ROYGBIV, released in March 2012, which was playlisted on 6Music and picked up positive press.

The War Room EP is set for release on 28th May 2012 on Test Card Recordings.

LIVE TRANSMISSIONS

Friday 30th March – @ 229 supporting The Correspondents

Wednesday 11th April – ‘War Room EP’ live premiere @ Hackney Picturehouse

Thursday 19th – Sunday 22nd April – 4 date Italian mini-tour

Saturday 28th April – Videocrash w/ Hexstatic @ Village Underground

Saturday 5th May – Live in Leeds Festival

Sunday 6th May – Simple Things Festival, Bristol

Friday 1st June – War Room EP release party @ BFI Southbank

Friday 29th June – Leefest, Highams Hill Farm, South London

August 29 – 31 – Waveform Festival, Taunton