Engineers are a British shoegaze band, composed of Simon Phipps (vocals/guitars), Mark Peters (vocals/guitars/bass), Daniel Land (bass), Ulrich Schnauss (keyboards), and Matthew Gilbert Linley (drums). Following the rapturous reception that greeted their mini-album Folly in 2004 and debut Engineers the following year, it's taken them a long time to build the epic that is Three Fact Fader. After initial recording sessions with producer Ken Thomas, Engineers became unwitting victims of record company restructuring and the album was left in limbo, unfinishe d until the band reconvened earlier this year, largely motivated by public support. "We seem to appeal to people in a really deep way - people tell us our music has helped them through intense times in their lives," explains Mark Peters. ...show more

Engineers are a British shoegaze band, composed of Simon Phipps (vocals/guitars), Mark Peters (vocals/guitars/bass), Daniel Land (bass), Ulrich Schnauss (keyboards), and Matthew Gilbert Linley (drums). Following the rapturous reception that greeted their mini-album Folly in 2004 and debut Engineers the following year, it's taken them a long time to build the epic that is Three Fact Fader. After initial recording sessions with producer Ken Thomas, Engineers became unwitting victims of record company restructuring and the album was left in limbo, unfinishe d until the band reconvened earlier this year, largely motivated by public support. "We seem to appeal to people in a really deep way - people tell us our music has helped them through intense times in their lives," explains Mark Peters.

"This is why it was so important to get the album released, it means so much more than the peripheral aspects of releasing records." It's not just lyrically that Engineers have a deep emotional resonance; the music itself has an overwhelming sense of purity and beauty that you can completely immerse yourself in. It was this tendency towards epic soundscapes that saw Engineers lumped in with the nascent shoegaze revival when they first appeared; now that the scene that celebrates itself has gone overground with the reformation of My Bloody Valentine and high-profile compilations from Rob Da Bank and revivalist label Sonic Cathedral, it seems as if Engineers have timed their return perfectly. "It pleases me to see shoegaze finally being accepted as a genre rather than something to poke fun at," says Mark. "I do see links with our music, some of which are intentional and some of which aren't, but there's a lot more besides.

The best music taps into the enigma of the human condition and thinking too much about trivialities such as genres tends to put the mockers on creativity." There were clearly no such constraints on Engineers' creativity while they were making Three Fact Fader, which takes the influences of the debut and expands on them, resulting in a much bigger, bolder record. So, while Brighter As We Fall does indeed sound like Slowdive, it's Slowdive as reimagined by Phil Spector. Song For Andy could be one of those previously unreleased Dennis Wilson tracks that cropped up on the Pacific Ocean Blue reissue. The Fear Has Gone begins with ambient drones and neo-classical strings reminiscent of Austin, Texas minimalist duo Stars Of The Lid. ...show less