Firestations are Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson, Giles Littleford and Tom Hargreaves. They write lyrical alt-pop songs filtered through joyous surges of collective noise-making and bursts of electronic sound from synths and guitars. They released their acclaimed debut album Never Closer at the end of 2014. After much gigging to support it, including festival outings to Indietracks, Aaaahfest in Germany and Indiefjord in Norway, they hunkered down to record a follow-up.

On The Year Dot, Firestations have refined and expanded on a shared obsession – sketching simple pop songs then painting over them with drones, vocal harmonies, electronica and unusual rhythms. The album is a true DIY effort, made over the best part of three years in a small home studio in Walthamstow, the north circular hissing in the near distance.

“We spent a lot of time obsessing over making it an absorbing listen” says Mike, "aiming for a beautiful and strange concoction of introverted pop music. The songs have a kind of sunken melancholy running through them, but also a kind of joy - that's what I've always gravitated towards in music, and I think it emerges naturally in the music we make as Firestations. The album is a distillation of dreaming away the days on the outskirts, channeling the frustrations of the day job into writing lyrics on my phone, sinking into the mud in local woodland, recording drums in industrial units, seeking out euphoric sadness.”

TRACKLISTING

Side A

1. Build A Building
2. Make Your Own Mind Up
3. Receiver
4. Old Letters
5. Holdouts

Side B

1. Blue Marble
2. Far Future Morning
3. Pyramid Schemes
4. From Here
5. Lightning Strike