The Argus: Download of the Week
The Argus: Electric Soft Parade

Electric Soft Parade - 200th Download

From: Brighton

Profile: Brothers Thomas and Alex White set out their stall early on in their career, when their debut album Holes In The Wall – recorded when Tom was 17 and Alex 19 – was nominated for the 2002 Mercury Music Prize.

Although they lost out to Ms Dynamite, it put the boys in the premiership of the UK music scene, earning them a Q Award for best new act, and a major label signing with BMG for the followup album, The American Adventure, which came out the next year.

Having parted ways with BMG, the pair joined Brighton supergroup Brakes, before recording the Human Body EP and the brilliant No Need To Be Downhearted album on Truck Records in 2007.

In the intervening years, as well as releasing three albums and a live collection with Brakes, Tom embarked on his own solo career, with third album, the Egypt-recorded Yalla, set for release later this year, as well as touring with Patrick Wolf and previous Download stars Restlesslist.

Meanwhile Alex, as well as working in Brakes, had got involved with Brighton band The Pipettes and London-based band Official Secrets Act.

The pair reunited under the ESP name at a charity show last December in aid of the Martlets Hospice, which looked after their mother Ann until her untimely death in 2009.

On the back of the positive reaction the reunion received, the band announced a four-month residency at The Prince Albert, in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, earlier this year, where they performed each of their three albums in their entirety.

The final show last month was comprised entirely of new material, and was the first chance fans got to hear new EP A Quick One, which became their first release for four years on Monday (July 18).

Our 200th download is the demo version of the EP’s lead track, Lily, mixing Teenage Fanclub-style harmonies with a space-rock outro.

The EP is currently available as a 7in single through A Quick One Records or as a download on iTunes.

The Argus: Static HTML imageLily (demo version) (right click on the track to download, left click to stream)

Websites: www.electricsoftparade.co.uk or www.aquick1records.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/electricsoftparade

Previous download Next download