If you’re going to record a debut album, you might as well do it properly. London trio Hot Face have decided that tracking it bit-by-bit in a bedroom wasn’t quite high-stakes enough. Instead, they’ve gone and recorded their debut, Automated Response, in a single take, live, in front of an audience at Abbey Road Studios.
The album is out now via the always-reliable Speedy Wunderground, and it’s a bit of a monster. The whole thing came about after a chaotic gig in Rotterdam, where producer Dan Carey (the wizard behind Speedy Wunderground) and the band hatched a plan to capture their live energy on tape. Fast forward a bit, and they found themselves in Studio Three at Abbey Road, bashing out 25 minutes of garage-punk fury while a crowd watched on.
It’s a bold move for a new band, but it seems to have paid off. The result is a record that captures the sweat and adrenaline of a gig, blemishes and all. Guitarist James Bates describes the album as “a powerful jab to the cranium – a sonic freight train that leaves you spinning long after it’s passed.” He admits that with just one day to record, they “weren’t exactly going to be coming out of Abbey Road with Dark Side Of The Moon,” so they leaned into the raw, explosive energy of their live set instead.
If you want to see if they can pull it off in person (without the pressure of Abbey Road’s history looming over them), the band are currently out on the road. You can catch them at the remaining dates below:
- Tuesday 27th January – Northampton, The Lab
- Wednesday 28th January – Guildford, Boileroom
- Thursday 29th January – Bath, Burdall’s Yard
- Friday 30th January – London, Shacklewell Arms
- Saturday 31st January – Oxford, The Library
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