congratulations - Join Hands

They say you have your whole life to make your first album... how do you cut that
down to a 37-minute slice?

Through its laser- focused 10- track runtime, the record treats rock music with
irreverence and complete non- seriousness. Combining works in progress from the
band's primary songwriters bassist Greg Burns and guitarist Jamie Chellar, with some
scraps dating back several years prior to the band's inception, all members of
congratulations have combined to to hone and flesh out these songs with vigourous
performances and arrangements brimming with ideas and colour.

Leah Stanhope's formidable vocal performances can turn on a dime from spectrally
angelic to hellish, and James Gillingham's turn on the tubs combines featherweight
intricacies with sledgehammer force. Shameless pop melodies fight with Jamie's
jagged wonked guitars, Greg's thick fuzz bass rumble, crunched electronic beats and
a smorgasbord of mangled synths and samples relatively new to the band's sonic
palette. These muscular songs take control of the band and wilfully steer them off on
sharp tangents (Nevagunna's blown out sax invasion, This Life's this-thing's- broken
ending, Bubbles's Bollywood excursion).

With composition taking place over several years, the bulk of the record tracking was
done in a single week to capture the pace and immediacy of the band's rapturously
received live shows. Then began a lengthy tinkering process, with producer Luke
Phillips (Icebeing) on board to add power and spice treatments to the recordings and
complete mixing on the album, tying the whole thing together with a big green/blue/
red/yellow (take your pick) bow.