Soft Play est un duo qui fait beaucoup de bruit, au sens propre comme au figuré. Leur premier album a été nominé pour le Mercury Prize et Mike D des Beastie Boys a produit leur deuxième album. Côté décibels il est toujours étonnant de découvrir l’ampleur du vacarme que ces deux énervés arrivent à produire. Le duo cultive sa ‘prolo’ attitude et est issu de la même vague punk anglaise qu’IDLES, et biberonnés à Nirvana.

Sur Acts Of Fear And Love on ne peut pas dire que le duo se soit assagi, mais Soft Play ont massivement enrichi leur son et leur colère. La travail de Jolyon Thomas (Royal Blood, U2) est exemplaire, le producteur qui avait déjà oeuvré sur leur premier album sait respecter la spontanéité punk tout en soignant le son de la batterie et la guitare. Avec deux instruments le travail est certes plus simple, mais raison de plus pour en tirer le meilleur. (Sound of Violence)

Leur dernier album Acts Of Fear And Love (Mercury) est disponible.

English

Soft Play, the hyper-motivated Kent duo of Isaac Holman (vocals, drums) and Laurie Vincent (guitar), has been built on a rejection of rules and it’s served them well since the release of their Mercury nominated Gold debut album ‘Are You Satisfied?’ in 2015. Along the way, they’ve won the hearts of The Streets’ Mike Skinner, the Beastie Boys Mike D, won multiple NME Awards, had Skepta join them on stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, and toured with The Prodigy, Kasabian, Jamie T and Wolf Alice.

Their third and latest album ‘Acts Of Fear And Love’ smashed straight into the top ten and garnering some of the best reviews of the band’s career to date with NME describing it as “the most accomplished of Slaves’ three albums, switching things up and pulling off new sounds without losing sight of the band’s DNA.”

The record is far more genre-bending than before, containing the speed-y vitriol that’s always been par for the Soft Play course, but tempered by quieter, dreamier moments of straight-up ’90s indie.

Live it’s also seen the band moving up to the next level with them playing their biggest ever UK headline shows to date, including a night at London’s legendary Alexandra Palace, headlining the NME stage at Reading Festival, touring Europe supporting the Prodigy and taking their blistering mix of beats and riffs to the USA with high-profile slots at festivals like New York’s Governors Ball, Chicago’s Lollapalooza, and a nationwide tour.