| Biography
If one was to take Noonday Underground’s critics at face value then we’d all be forgiven for believing that their head tunesmith, Simon Dine, spends his days lounging in an Aarnio bubble chair watching classic Avengers re-runs while stacking obscure Tamla 45s on a paisley-patterned Dansette. When actually, he’d rather listen to the latest Hip-Hop or R&B waxing from across the Atlantic (he hails Brandy’s ‘What About Us’ as genius’ no less) and prefers to stew in front of the goggle box hypnotised by Formula One racing. And rarely, if ever, is he heard to utter the word groovy’. So okay, hands on hearts, how many of us who heard Noonday Underground’s superb 2001 Setanta debut Self Assembly didn’t spread its gospel by resorting to Sixties-centric comparisons with Wigan Casino soul, West Coast Psychedelia or, ahem, kinky-booted exotica’. It’s a fair cop, yet even at their most turned on, tuned in and wigged-out, Noonday Underground’s beat has always been firmly 21st Century. Which brings us to 2002, a new album and a new Noonday odyssey. If Self Assembly was a heavily liquidized 1967, then it’s logical that Surface Noise should be their older, wiser 1968 - an altogether freakier trip which takes a step back from the discotheque into a hitherto uncharted twilight zone of sweeping eclecticism. ‘That’s where I feel right now,’ says Dine, ‘that 68 to 69 weird period when all the swing-yer-pants’ people started to get a lot heavier. A lot druggier!’ Sure enough, three years in the making, Surface Noise is easily more spiritually intense and sonically in-depth than its bubbly, dance-floor-filler-ridden predecessor. ‘I wanted to get more of a thread to the album this time,’ Simon explains, ‘to have more variety in the songs but at the same time to make something that fitted together as a proper album, unlike Self Assembly which was more like a collection of separate tracks with no link.’ Opening with the ivory-pounding drama of ‘The Surface Noise’ - its awesome, Barbarella-gothic overture - next we’ve the bejewelled, strolling funk of ‘Go It Alone’ which reacquaints us with Daisy Martey - the leading lady of past Noonday classics ‘When You Leave’ and ‘The Light Brigade’ whose famed lung-busting shrill has since bloomed into a subtler, seductive chill. ‘The last album was her first time in the studio,’ explains Simon. ‘She was only 18 so she was constantly shouting into the mic. Now Daisy’s 22 she’s a bit more laidback as a person and it shows through her voice.’ Daisy dazzles thrice more on ‘Boy Like A Timebomb’, the feverish ‘When I Fall’ and the fittingly surreal denouement ‘Closing Time’ (if the latter’s breakdown doesn’t give you the screaming abdabs, nothing will). Meanwhile ‘Nobody But You’ sees Noonday Underground making history - of sorts - with its cheeky robotic karaoke take on The Turtles’ ‘Happy Together’. ‘I’d heard they were very difficult clearing copyright so I was a bit wary,’ Simon confesses. ‘One of the first sampling court cases was when The Turtles sued De La Soul for 3 Feet High & Rising, so I didn’t expect to get a yes’. But they agreed to let me use the lyrics after all. Apparently that’s very rare for them to do that.’ Elsewhere Surface Noise boasts the chopped up twang hoedown ‘Hitch Your Wagon To The Stars’ (‘I was trying to do a cowboy song - a kind of Carpetbaggers go California!’) plus ‘Windmills’ and the exquisitely emotive ‘Barcelona’ which both feature the unmistakably tender tones of The Trash Can Sinatras’ singer Francis Reader. Not forgetting, that is, another cameo from a man who’s championing of Dine’s baby has done much to boost Noonday Underground’s profile these past twelve months. ‘Paul Weller is one of a handful of people who I can play rough ideas to and who I know will give an honest opinion,’ says Simon. ‘He actually volunteered to be on Surface Noise without me asking him. Basically, I started working with Paul for his new album back in January of 2001. I’d play him bits and he’d say ‘maybe not for my album, but maybe I can do something on that for yours’. So that’s how ‘I’ll Walk Right On’ came about. The second track, ‘Thunder Park’, was going to be on Paul’s album but it didn’t fit in, so again we just used it for mine. More than anything he was just a great sounding board for this album. He suggested I should mix it with Stan Kybert at Noel Gallagher’s studio, which made a massive difference." With spookily divine timing, the release of Surface Noise coincides with the unveiling of its perfect partner, Illumination, Weller’s latest (and possibly greatest?) upon which Simon has co-written and co-produced ‘Now The Nite Is Here’ and the noticeably Noonday flavoured new single ‘It’s Written In The Stars’. But that, as they say, is another story. As for the future of Noonday Underground, Dine remains as serene and unperturbed as his latest long player: ‘I’m just taking it easy, seeing how the new album does. Daisy’ is considering doing some gigs so it would be nice to get a live angle on the songs and see how they come over. Plus I’d love to do more production work in the future. Other than that I’m just enjoying getting a response from what I do,’ concludes Simon, ‘messing around with some new sounds and working out what to do next." And with that we leave the modest Mr Dine to get on with what he does best. |
