Crash gang wallop

“A man can never know the kind of loneliness a woman feels.”

It’s quite an alluring way to start an LP: sloping, Weimar bass, some gently tapping high-hat, a dash of sultry, disembodied saxophone and a whispered monologue from the queen of erotic modernism. Thirty seconds into the song ‘A Man Can Never Know’ and it’s clear that Belfast duo Bellcrash are well capable of making the right kind of seductive impression.

“It’s Anais Nin reading from her diaries,” says Paul McMahon. “ I got it on vinyl from Central Library. It was incredible, one of those things you’re just so lucky to stumble across.”

“It was amazing,” Mark Bell agrees. “The minute we heard it our ears just pricked up. You can’t not use something like that.”

You may know Paul already. Two years ago, while operating as Crashdaddy, he recorded a collection of particularly fine, down-tempo tunes that inspired hotpress to flag him as a talent worth watching.

And anyone familiar with the swankier side of Belfast clubbing will be aware of Mark. Along with Timmy Stewart and Glenn McCartney, he’s been instrumental in establishing Digital Boogie as one of the city’s main clubs, while he’s also had tracks released on Plastic and compilations from Fabric.

It’s hardly a shock, therefore, to find the pair responsible for such classily literate material. The only surprise is that Bellcrash didn’t happen earlier.

“I was working in the Diesel shop in Belfast about a year and a half ago with Timmy Stewart,” says Mark, “and Paul came in to drop in a copy of his Crashdaddy album. I just thought it was great. It was just the kind of stuff I was really into, and I mentioned to Timmy that I’d really love to work with Paul and we just took it from there.”

“I knew some of Mark’s stuff and I could tell we were on the same kind of vibe – really good, chilled stuff that you could sit back and listen to.”

It’s worth spending some time with Crashdaddy. They are the kind of outfit that repay devotion. Superficially, theirs is a world of smooth, pristine surfaces, but the pair claim to have spent “hundreds of hours” on their first album – a decision that, judging by the variety and colour of the record’s details, has paid off.

The patina of mellow soulfullness is flavoured by bursts of giddy electro, eerie snatches of jazz strings and intriguing vocal samples.

What kind of things have you got lurking in there?

Paul: “All sorts. There’s a guy called Pete Proctor in there reciting poetry. He’s a real character - he was a professional skater and surfer and he used to work with Mark. One night we were out in the pub and he started reciting this mad poem to us, so we got him in later and got him to repeat it.

“We’ve always been into the idea of grabbing sounds from as many different sources as we can,” says Mark. “We don’t feel as if we have to restrict ourselves. There’s a song called ‘Conman’ that starts off like a chill-out track but halfway through goes off into this mad Brazilian samba, and finally ends up like a House tune. We’re always open to new ideas.”

The first Bellcrash EP has just been released on Seventh Sign (Mark: “Lots of people are saying good things about it, Radio One have been playing it, Bukem’s been dead supportive.”) but according to Paul, the boys are prepared to bide their time when it comes to finally putting out their debut LP.

“We spent so long on the album that we’re going to think very carefully about labels. It’s important that you have someone that you trust, who’s interested in you and we’re prepared to wait a while until we find that. But to be honest we just like the idea of people listening to it who are into our kind of music. We don’t really have any ambitions beyond that.”

Local motions

Rumours that Snow Patrol are on the verge of inking a contract with Polygram were, it seems, a bit previous. The ludicrously deal-less Bangor mob are apparently “still in negotiations” with a number of different labels, although it’s thought that there will be some positive news early in the New Year. By which time recent recruit Nathan Connolly should have earned himself some spurs. Nathan used to play noisy guitar for hard-rocking Bright Star mob fileundereasylistening. Expect him to drink all The Reindeer Section’s beer.

Norman Blake, who made a brief appearance on the last Section album, was due in Belfast and Derry this month for a pair of eagerly anticipated ‘Greatest Hits’ shows. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait now until January for Teenage Fanclub. The new dates are Belfast Limelight Jan 30 and the following night at The Nerve Centre.