Saloon - (This is) What We Call Progress

1. Plastic Surgery, 2. Bicycle Thieves, 3. Le Weekend, 4. Make it Soft, 5. Static, 6. Girls are the New Boys, 7. 2500 Walden Ave., 8. Across the Great Divide, 9. My Everyday Silver is Plastic, 10. Victor Safronov

Their debut. Saloon are a five piece pop band from Reading, England. Their music is the traditional sound of guitars, strings and softly sung vocals meeting electronic beeps and whistles of Moogs, stylophones and Theremins head on. (This Is) What We Call Progress is record of profound beauty sounding akin to early Stereolab, very early early New Order and Mahogany. It was recorded in Leeds and mixed by Andrew Mahogany in New York at Andrew’s Simultaneous Workshop. Their debut full length follows several singles on a variety of UK labels (Artists Against Success, Amberly, Bearos, Glamourpus, Fortuna Pop and Track and Field) two of which have made John Peel’s Festive 50. In 2001 the band became the focal point of the Reading indie scene with their live music night "Happy Robots." This culminated in July 2001 with "A Weekend of Happy Robots" a massively successful mini-festival staged in Reading, described by John Peel as being "better than the real Reading festival." Over 2001 "Happy Robots" brought the likes of Electrelane, Pram, Billy Mahonie, Kaito and Herman Dune to Reading.

 "A seductively breezy guitar lead pop gem of sorts and one of those once in a while feel good records that trips into your life.” – Losing Today.

"Saloon continue to get better. Their Snow is a bewitching pop fantasy of dreamy vocals and keyboards kept in place by a darkly romantic Krautrock riff" – NME.

"A blinder… throbbing guitar riffs, menacing violins via John Cale and stabbing moog symphonies build up to a captivating unit that takes a delicious hold of your senses." – NME.