BRAUND REYNOLDS - ROCKET (A NATURAL GAMBLER)

If rock music were a school, you'd find the likes of Coldplay and Athlete sitting quietly in poetry class, Basement Jaxx playing chess, Daft Punk playing computer games with LCD Soundsystem, and Braund Reynolds running riot in the music room. Glum rock this is not. Imagine a rock ‘n’ roll attitude squeezed into a bagful of drugs and injected with the intricacies of Hunter S Thompson, and you're only close to getting a handle on them… Braund Reynolds is set to explode. The London band is currently enjoying National Chart success with the highly anticipated 'Rocket', on Virgin Records. Already tipped by Music Week, Mixmag, Thomas Bangalter, Fatboy Slim and many industry players, they're set to become one of 2005/6's brightest new bands. The whirlwind of attention from gigs, DJ sets and demos has put Ben Braund and James Reynolds in a quandary - it has suddenly become work. Their ferocious live set has them joined onstage by Mike Allen on vocals, Jamie Humphries on guitar, Beni from The Mixologists on decks, Adam Bushell hitting the cans, and a 4-strong brass section. When solely behind the decks, both Ben and James enjoy gigs across the globe – a further chance to put the Braund Reynolds sound to the masses. Closer to home you can find them tipping their hedonistic hats at a club near you. Musically, they’re the aural equivalent of the bag of drugs we mentioned earlier - an insanely energetic mix of heavy break beats, guitar licks, and psychedelia. ‘Rocket’ is a mere sniff of the Braund Reynolds bounty. It’s a raucous, uplifting, beast of a track, currently swaggering onto a dancefloor near you, and recognisable for it’s fiery, country-style vocal. The release features remixes from The Young Punx, Slyde, Coburn, Patrick Alavi and Nuskoolbreaks master Rennie Pilgrem. Their second single, ‘1 Time, 1 Crime’, features the Stereo MCs, one part political missive aimed squarely at global disillusion, one part block-rocking wake-up call to the dancefloor. Ben has also co-written a track on the forthcoming MC’s album, set to blow up at this season’s festivals. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.