New Album

"MILKING SCARABS FOR DOUGH" out now on Tin Angel Records

The addition of inventive guitarist Ollie Warren has further broadened the already vast sonic palette of Market Harborough's top avant-rockers, making the wonderful Black Carrot more diggable than ever.

He's at the heart of a track like "Onomatopoeia", where his several de-tuned lines collude most pleasingly; and elsewhere, his razor-sharp shards slot nicely into the band's limber Beefheart-style grooves, particularly the oddly infectious stutter-funk of "The One That Got Away" and "The Detonation Tonight Will Be S-Ray-20". Elsewhere, "The Hush Hour" is a plaintive abstraction, while the band's instrumental diversity is demonstrated via the melodica and bass clarinet of "Sleep" and the harpsichord of "Magnets", before the album draws to a close with the wheezing shanty "The Top of the Hill".
Andy Gill, The Independent 4/5 stars

Quintessentially English as they say, Black Carrot´s birthplace in Market Harborough is amidst the cornfields of Leicestershire, East England. Yet they have moved from jazzy freeform to coherent composition over the course of just a few years. A transition that might have taken a lot longer under different circumstances but in the case of Black Carrot has happened quickly.

Swapping new wave grooves in return for cabaretesque melody lines, Black Carrot´s 2008 second album,'Drink the Black Forest', turned out a major improvement over their debut, 'Kluk', from 2003. Singer Stewart Brackley now appears much more confident, crooning and crawling over words in a fashion that recall Père Ubu´s David Thomas. Or, when in plaintative fashion, the Nightingales' Robert Lloyd but either way the range of Brackley's vocals is quite remarkable. At one stage, on 'Magnets', he mentions that Britain is run by little Hitlers, which might explain the band's move towards Kurt Weill vaudeville music, simply as a political stance.

Though this would not do much justice to the present shape and form of Black Carrot. Funky soul music has got underneath the band's skin, and, melodically inflicted, Black Carrot have followed route.

Musically, Black Carrot put on offer the best they've had so far. Apart from being it a political statement, which is perhaps outdated by the outcome from the Conservative and LibDem coalition presently at rule, it has hidden truths to be remembered in forthcoming elections and a wealth of music to explore beneath it.

1970s funk dominates, but this being a Black Carrot album it encaptures a plethora of styles and paves the way for many genres of music. As on their second album Black Carrot demonstrate a very fine sense of pop music history. I've had the album for a few days only but it has not left the player and I'm still finding new aspects. Simply wonderful.

Maarten Schiethart, Penny Black Music

Upcoming shows

OCTOBER
21st The Hope, Brighton feat. Baby Dee
22nd The Croft, Bristol feat. Baby Dee
23rd Tin Angel, Coventry feat. Baby Dee
24th The Lexington, feat. Baby Dee
27th The Donkey, Leicester
31st The Old Wharf, Digbeth with The Courtesy Group and The Nightingales

NOVEMBER
12th Lock 42, Leicester with Gestalt & Echolocation

DECEMBER
6th Tin Angel Xtmas Party, Taylor John's House, Coventry
23rd The Criterion, Leicester

Download track

“RUBBER MUMMY”
(3.09) 3.6Mb © MOONCITYMUSIC 2008
Fender Rhodes, Chinese Pipe, OB, Electric Bass - SB, Drums - TB.

Mailing List

contact
If you would like to book Black Carrot or have an interesting proposition please contact Olly Betts on
hello@blackcarrot.net

or call:
01858 410469 (daytime)
01858 461564 / 467317 (evenings)

or write:
Black Carrot, c/o Beta Graphic Ltd
Printers Yard, 20 Goward Street
Market Harborough LE16 9AF

Press
Press support and PR is being handled by Ken Lower at Hermana, contact Ken@hermana.co.uk Tel: 0207 733 8009

Enquiries
For all information, distribution, booking and general enquiries please contact

Oliver Betts at hello@blackcarrot.net
Tel: 01858 410469
or Rich Guy at rich@thetinangel.co.uk
www.tinangelrecords.co.uk
Tel: 02476 559010