Elle Milano 'Acres of Dead Space Cadets' album

The name is misleading: ELLE MILANO is no willowy raven haired songstress, nor someone gracing the pages of Vogue, Tatler and Hello. ELLE MILANO is a band, a three piece now based in Brighton but formed at Leicester De Montfort University in the winter of 2004. ELLE MILANO are, frankly, startling, and ‘Acres Of Dead Space Cadets’ ought one day to be considered one of those classic British debut albums that smashed into the rain spattered windows of our complacent homes and changed the face of music. Of course it’s far too complex and smart for that, given our contemporary dumbed down culture and the band’s evident intellect.

But let’s imagine for one magical moment that angular, articulate, angry, witty and archly knowing guitar rock was still something to aspire to. ELLE MILANO, in that parallel universe, would be the poster band for a new generation.

Produced by the band themselves with the intention of capturing what they call the “’band in a room’ sound” perfected by the Pixies on Surfer Rosa or Nirvana’s In Utero, there’s still an undeniable Englishness to the album, perhaps the result of their self-built studio’s location in a Kent country cottage. It’s impossible not to hear musical and lyrical echoes of acts like The Cure, The Smiths, Blur, PiL (most ostensibly in Crisp’s occasionally Lydon-esque delivery) and even, at times, Madness. But they’d deny the latter forcefully in favour of other influences as diverse as Girls Aloud, Michael Jackson, Wu Tang Clan and Danny Elfman.

So get ready for guitars to slam ribcages, bass to pound groins and drums to rattle cranial walls like prime US post-hardcore. Get ready for shiny keyboards and melodic ingenuity to seduce you with revitalized, rewired synth pop. Get ready to be soothed by heartfelt tales of late night loneliness, adolescent confusion and twenty-something disgust. ELLE MILANO is not what you expect at all.

ELLE MILANO will be releasing ‘Meanwhile in Hollywood’ the first single from their debut album ‘Acres of Dead Space Cadets’ on the 31st March 2008. The album is released on the 14th April 2008.

tour dates
April
2 London - Islington Academy
4 Cardiff - Barfly
5 Southampton - Unit 22
10 Leicester - Sumo
11 Bristol - Louisiana
14 York - Junction
16 Milton Keynes - Opus
19 Hitchin - Club 85
20 Nottingham - The Social
21 Oxford - Jericho Tavern
24 Luton - Club NME @ UBSU
25 Swansea - Club NME @ Sin City
26 Exeter - Club NME @ The Hub
27 Guildford - Boiler Room
28 Cambridge - Barfly
30 London – Garage

May
24 Hull - The Welly

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Elle Milano - Acres of Dead Space Cadets