One Unique Signal are a London based 5 piece who have been around in various forms since 2000. Of the original line up, only 2 members remain, founder Nick Keech and Bassist James Beal.
The sound has shifted around in this time but a core feature has always remained…repetition.
Begun as an alternative to the burgeoning post rock/math scene of the time, Nick Keech and Dean Knight (Silent Front / Ternary) started out calling themselves ‘Windomn Chikarah’ with the intention of returning to the late 80s indie / space rock guitar bands, referencing Spacemen 3, The Telescopes and Loop etc. Drums were replaced by tremelos and pulse rhythms and the more technical aproach to guitar work was scrapped in favour of feedback manipulation and distorted drones. The arrival of Drummer/Vocalist Lee Barber and Bassist James Beal soon after, marked a switch in sound to a more cohesive aproach with Krautrock rhythms brought in alongside more regimented guitar playing.
Not long after this, Dean Knight left, Ed Harding came in, the name Windomn Chikarah was shelved and One Unique Signal was born.
2003 saw OUS team up with the newly formed Genepool Records to release debut single Lowry to superb reviews, with Drowned in Sound declairing it ‘Pure gold’. The AA side ‘Coins & Cards’ made it into the ‘Dirty Sanchez’ MTV show. 2 Years later, debut album Tribe, Castle and Nation was released, again to great reviews however, by the time it hit the shelves, 2 more band members (Lee Barber & Ed Harding) had left leaving the band with no option but to hide away in the practice room and regroup.
The arrival of Byron Jackson, Dan Davis and long term OUS friend James Messenger by 2006 meant 3 guitarists and saw the band re evaluate their sound, heading back into a more psychedelic / drone / wall of noise direction. The 2008 release of the Dismemberment EP was very much a statement of intent towards this sound, with the introduction of drawn out bouts of feedback, tremelos and heavily layered guitars.
In the summer of 2009 the band released their follow, Villains to a Man as a free download alongside some hand crafted CD hard copies. Julian Cope was impressed enough to declaire the release Album of the month on his Head Heritage website with the resulting attention prompting the band to colaborate again with Genepool to put together an official release on both CD & Vinyl.
In Feb 2010 the band hooked up with Stephen Lawrie, founder of The Telescopes, on a 9 date UK tour to perform a set of the band's early material. The Telescopes album 'Live:Aftertaste' was taken from a show on this tour and members of OUS can regularly be seen performing with Stephen at Telescopes shows.
2011 will see new material surface as well as a tour of Southern Europe in the Autumn.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.
One Unique Signal are a London based 5 piece who have been around in various forms since 2000. Of the original line up, only 2 members remain, founder Nick Keech and Bassist James Beal.
The sound has shifted around in this time but a core feature has always remained…repetition.
Begun as an alternative to the burgeoning post rock/math scene of the time, Nick Keech and Dean Knight (Silent Front / Ternary) started out calling themselves ‘Windomn Chikarah’ with the intention of returning to the late 80s indie / space rock guitar bands, referencing Spacemen 3, The Telescopes and Loop etc. Drums were replaced by tremelos and pulse rhythms and the more technical aproach to guitar work was scrapped in favour of feedback manipulation and distorted drones. The arrival of Drummer/Vocalist Lee Barber and Bassist James Beal soon after, marked a switch in sound to a more cohesive aproach with Krautrock rhythms brought in alongside more regimented guitar playing.
Not long after this, Dean Knight left, Ed Harding came in, the name Windomn Chikarah was shelved and One Unique Signal was born.
2003 saw OUS team up with the newly formed Genepool Records to release debut single Lowry to superb reviews, with Drowned in Sound declairing it ‘Pure gold’. The AA side ‘Coins & Cards’ made it into the ‘Dirty Sanchez’ MTV show. 2 Years later, debut album Tribe, Castle and Nation was released, again to great reviews however, by the time it hit the shelves, 2 more band members (Lee Barber & Ed Harding) had left leaving the band with no option but to hide away in the practice room and regroup.
The arrival of Byron Jackson, Dan Davis and long term OUS friend James Messenger by 2006 meant 3 guitarists and saw the band re evaluate their sound, heading back into a more psychedelic / drone / wall of noise direction. The 2008 release of the Dismemberment EP was very much a statement of intent towards this sound, with the introduction of drawn out bouts of feedback, tremelos and heavily layered guitars.
In the summer of 2009 the band released their follow, Villains to a Man as a free download alongside some hand crafted CD hard copies. Julian Cope was impressed enough to declaire the release Album of the month on his Head Heritage website with the resulting attention prompting the band to colaborate again with Genepool to put together an official release on both CD & Vinyl.
In Feb 2010 the band hooked up with Stephen Lawrie, founder of The Telescopes, on a 9 date UK tour to perform a set of the band's early material. The Telescopes album 'Live:Aftertaste' was taken from a show on this tour and members of OUS can regularly be seen performing with Stephen at Telescopes shows.
2011 will see new material surface as well as a tour of Southern Europe in the Autumn.
User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.