Sad Lovers And Giants - Romantic fairy tales in noir tones

The stories of Sad Lovers And Giants and the record label Midnight Music run on parallel tracks. After two self-released singles on the small Last Moment label, in 1982 Sad Lovers And Giants opened the Midnight Music catalogue with their third single, “Lost In A Moment”. Nearly ten years later, and after more than a dozen albums and singles, it was their very own Threehouse Poetry that closed out the Midnight catalogue. Nick Ralph, the deus ex machina behind this small but hugely important label, died leaving a void that could never be filled. It took another ten years before the band picked up their instruments again to keep “feeding the fire”. Now that Sad Lovers And Giants are back with their own label, Voight-Kampff, and an album, Melting In The Fullness Of Time, that stands as a manifesto of continuity with the most romantic and underground world of the Eighties, it seems that Nick Ralph's spirit has never truly left this earth.

The band formed in Rickmansworth and set up their headquarters a few miles away in Watford, north of London. The lineup on the early singles and first four albums featured Garce Allard on vocals, Tristan Garel-Funk on guitars, David Wood on keyboards and saxophones, Cliff Silver on bass and saxophones, and Nigel Pollard on drums. Their music was described by the music press of the time as “new psychedelia” (Sounds), “a good fit for labels like 4AD” (Jamming), “with echoes of the most pastoral Pink Floyd…” (Melody Maker). In truth, they had closer ties than people cared to admit at the time to both progressive rock and folk, even though certain elements - including Allard's vocal delivery, the depth of the lyrics, and the stark sparseness of the sound - were undeniably rooted in the aesthetics of that era, namely new wave. Just listen to “Clint”, from Epic Garden Music, to understand how far Sad Lovers And Giants actually stood from the standards of the time, and how they managed to blend past and present in a wholly original and unique way. “Clint” also appeared on a compilation of the era, “The Thing From The Crypt (I Nearly Died Laughing)”, on which Sad Lovers And Giants featured with two tracks - “Take Me Inside” being the other - before their “marriage” to Midnight Music.

The masterpiece of their early period is the album Feeding The Flame (which, like its predecessor Epic Garden Music, would be reissued on CD with the addition of singles not featured on the original LPs): the sound overall becomes fuller and cleaner; acoustic guitars sketch out arpeggios that weave into magnificent orbits alongside the electric guitars, the ideal setting for Allard's lyrics (“Your Skin And Mine”); keyboards reign supreme, shaping the atmosphere even on faster tracks like the anthemic “In Flux”; Sad Lovers And Giants turn to black and invent gothic-rock with “Man Of Straw”, at least two years before the Fields Of The Nephilim first met in Stevenage (not too far from Watford). The band's story could have ended there, since they actually broke up after the release of Feeding The Flame. Guitarist Tristan Garel-Funk went on to form Snakecorps, giving life to another great romantic new wave band, forever intertwined with the fortunes of Sad Lovers And Giants, with musicians moving between the two whenever the occasion arose. Midnight, meanwhile, under pressure from fans, decided to release a collection of demos and rarities, In The Breeze, which also included the tracks the band had recorded for a BBC session in front of John Peel in the autumn of 1981.

One of the hallmarks of this band was their habit of recording several versions of their songs before landing on the one that felt satisfying, or "perfect". Thanks to this abundance of material, Sad Lovers And Giants' singles and EPs always offer something unreleased. Their modest success across Europe had pushed the band into long tours through Germany, France, Spain and Holland, where they'd also had the chance to record a session for radio broadcast. The event would have been remembered only by the lucky few who were there (no more than 10!), had it not been released by Midnight in 1986 as their fourth album – the second since their split – Total Sound (recorded on 15 May 1983). A devastating record. The tracklist is perfect, the chemistry between the musicians is fantastic, and, as usual, the different versions of the songs make it unmissable.

Meanwhile, Allard and Pollard decided to reform Sad Lovers And Giants, bringing in guitarist Tony McGuiness and keyboardist Juliet Sainsbury. Tours across Europe followed, including Italy, and finally, in the autumn of 1986, new songs were recorded. Perhaps the goal was to break out of cult-band status and reach for wider success. The power and polish of the tracks on the new album, The Mirror Test, and of the 12"s drawn from that record ("Seven Kinds Of Sin", "White Russians"), likely express that very ambition. Not that the character of their music had changed all that much: Allard's "intellectual" melancholy was still very much present in the lyrics, and the guitars kept weaving their endless arpeggio spirals. The modest success that followed the release of The Mirror Test prompted the band to reissue their first two albums on CD, adding tracks taken from their early singles; a CD version of The Mirror Test was also pressed, with a different tracklist from the LP.

Constant second thoughts that find further confirmation in the release of two 12"s featuring different versions of songs already recorded for earlier releases, "Cow Boys" and "Clocks Go Backwards". The remix of "Cow Boys" found on the 12" is nothing short of terrifying. The two releases were followed by a split 12" with Essence, another legendary Midnight band, who had shared stages with Sad Lovers And Giants across France and Switzerland in the autumn of 1988. The two bands recorded two tracks from their respective catalogues together, "Sleep (Is For Everyone)" and "A Reflected Dream". To promote that long French tour, an anthology compilation was released, Les Année Vertes, half studio and half live, featuring a completely unreleased version of "Imagination/Cloud9". Meanwhile, Cliff Silver, the original bassist, had rejoined the band. With this five-piece lineup, the band recorded their last albums for Midnight, Headland and Threehouse Poetry, which Sad Lovers And Giants themselves consider their finest recordings. They've been hailed as setting new standards of refinement for new wave, featuring elegant, timeless tracks like "Godless Soul", "One Man's Hell" and the gorgeous instrumental "Restless". Midnight was by then on the verge of closing down, and Threehouse Poetry came out just a week after the label announced it was ceasing operations.

After almost ten years of silence, in 1999, by which point everyone assumed they were gone for good, Sad Lovers And Giants set up their own label, Voight-Kampff Records, and immediately decided to reissue their last two Midnight albums on a single CD: they merged the tracklists of the two records, cut the song the band "hated most", "Life Will Kill Us", and started recording new material. Before releasing their final masterpiece, Melting In The Fullness Of Time, they put out a live album recorded in Lausanne in 1988, during what they call their "best tour ever", La Dolce Vita.

The lineup behind the latest incarnation of Sad Lovers And Giants, the current one, features Garce Allard on vocals, Tony McGuiness on guitars, Liam McGuiness on bass, Bob Bradley on guitars and Kevin Mathews on drums. Anyone completely new to the band could easily start with the last two releases, both available on the band's official website. The live album features all their biggest hits, making it an excellent introduction. "In Flux", "Alaska", "Cowboys", "Sleep", "Echoplay" and "Imagination" all glide by amid the roar of an ecstatic crowd, right up to the inevitable "Colourless Dream" and "Clint". The sound is powerful and dreamlike at once, even if the recording quality isn't the best.

It's a different story with their last studio album, Melting In The Fullness Of Time, masterfully recorded at Tony McGuiness's home studio between 1999 and 2002. Eight tracks that seem intent on setting new standards for the pop song: brilliant melodies, impeccable arrangements and lyrics that view the world through a mature, by-now disenchanted melancholy. What emerges is an original synthesis of Chameleons and Xtc. The guitar arpeggios remain the band's trademark, but never before have they been blended so seamlessly into the mix alongside the other instruments ("A Daughter", "German Cars"). The flame of passion still burns in the hearts of Sad Lovers And Giants.

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