Shayne P Carter (Bored Games, The Doublehappys, Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer) has been working on his first solo LP for quite a while now. In fact it’s been nearly 2 years since he ran a crowdfunding campaign to get some money to finish off the album which he hoped, at the time, would be out at the end of 2014. The word was that it was going to be a piano-based album with Carter teaching himself to play the instrument. Finally we get to hear the first taste of the forthcoming record Offsider which we assume is due for release in the next few months.

“I wrote the entire record on piano which was either a brave or foolhardy thing to do considering I’ve never played piano before in my life. But the idea of a fresh angle really appealed to me. I liked the idea of naivety and primitivism and chords sounding new again and the idea of playing piano in a way “real” pianists wouldn’t probably consider.”

We Will Rise Again features Carter on piano and vocals plus Gary Sullivan on drums and Nick Roughan on bass (though James Duncan is still the live bassist) and includes some tense strings and heavy drama (shades of Radiohead and late period Talk Talk), with Carter’s ear for clever dynamic  twists and turns still intact.