'Haunted Mirror' album launch reviewed in Cambridge Music Reviews

Big thanks to everyone who made Saturday's album launch such a great night! Mike Wright posted a lovely review in Cambridge Music Reviews, reproduced in full here:

"After ten years on the Cambridge music scene The Scissors release a new album, the grammatically challenging ‘The Scissors Is The Haunted Mirror’.
The four-piece promise ‘carnival freakshow organ, primitive synths, and rock’n’roll guitar powered psychpunkpop.’ and much of this manifesto is to be heard in show starter ‘Come With Me’, the opening track on the LP. In the week that Keith Emerson of ELP became the latest rocker to die in 2016, it was good to be reminded of the great Hammond organ sound as it pushed its way into the chorus of this punchy bass-driven song.
‘No Go The Lowdown’ is a rocker with a cryptic lyric and the clever effect of all instruments and voice sharing the hook line. We had a brief acoustic interlude featuring antique accordion and acoustic guitar for ‘Attack Of The Phantom Teardrops’ then ‘Phone Calls From The Dead’ and final track ‘Your House Has Ghosts’ are back to noisy pop-rock. Best of all is the slow-burner blues of ‘Why Don’t You Cry’, with theremin textures (always fascinating to watch), guitar fireworks and the vocals from Stewart Harris making the most of the straight to the heart melody.
It was a good advert for the album (although I would have liked to hear the keyboard rushes and emotional turmoil hidden behind the title of of ‘Don’t Hate Me Just Because I’m Yours’).
Their free lyric sheet proclaimed it was ‘a phantasmagorical entertainment to thrill and beguile the senses…’, they certainly proved again that they are one of the best live bands in Cambridge."

Pic by Jay

Pic by Jay

 

Pre-order 'Haunted Mirror' album, get 'No go the lowdown' track now

You can now pre-order our new album from German Shepherd Records - and when you do you'll get 'No go the lowdown' to enjoy in advance!

What to expect from the new Scissors album?

Here's a lovely piece on our forthcoming album from Bob's Aural Delights!

'The eleven track set grabs the attention from the get go with a thumping bass and drum combination, surging Hammond and searing guitars and excellent call and response vocals. “Come With Me” is a great opener, followed by the exceedingly catchy “No go the lowdown” which echoes classic british pop-rock with a tinge of urban blues and a smattering of soul in the vocals, and a killer hook.  This band is all about textures and layers and the visceral guitar tones of “Don’t Hate Just Because I’m Yours” introduce another memorable melody, which promises to be a real crowd pleaser with it’s more-ish chorus. The band keep the songs short and to the point, perfect little nuggets of modern music. After the up tempo start matters slow down for the more restrained “All These Things” which is notable for Simon Powell’s sonic explorations and busy drums from Wallace.  The punky motorik “I’m Not The Real Me” perhaps sums up the unique qualities of the band, conjuring a maelstrom of different sounds into a melange of psychedelic pop. The album title track is a tight little tune with a ska feel, great organ sounds, and tasty pop elements and a tidy guitar solo. “Phones Calls from the Dead” has another killer guitar hook, pumping bass and great changes echoing Zappa at his most playful.  Gritty picked guitar opens the blues drenched “Why Don’t You Cry” which comes across like the mutant offspring of “House of the Rising Sun”, nice soloing from Lefever, combined with some great feedback control make this the stand out track for the guitarist. “Sjhake” – I should have asked them what the added “J” was for, but I forgot, is a tasty portion of blue-eyed soul-rock.”Come With Me” reprises in a jam-like free improv way before morphing back into the main song. The album closes with ambient sounds and the measured “Attack Of The Phantom Teardrops” which takes a deep emotional breath after a such a busy and impressive selection.

A highly recommended second album release from a great band.'

Happy new (tenth) year!

Been a while since the last post on here, sorry! But here we are, entering our tenth anniversary year of being The Scissors. We can happily announce that there will be releases this year!
The album, 'The Scissors Is The Haunted Mirror', which has been complete for a couple of months, will finally see the light of day - we'll announce details of which label has been kind enough to agree to release it for us (and when) shortly!
And there's another exciting project for a bit later in the year that we'll tell you about soon...
Once things are set in stone we'll get gig dates and radio appearances finalised and make some noise once more.
Thank you for your patience!
Love, THE SCISSORS

Album recording

We've finally found some time to continue work on our next album, and have got the basis of most of the rest of the tracks in the can. There are still guitar and vocal overdubs to do and a fair bit of knob twiddling, but the tracklisting is sorted and in rough form it's got the feel we were after. All coming together nicely!

It has a title too, which we'll reveal shortly. The vibe of the album (and cover) is 1890s music halls, conjurers and illusionists, magic lantern phantasmagoria, fake seances, and a big slab of psychedelia...