Archives - already in the name of the band hides the everlasting. Now the collective is celebrating a quarter of a century of band history under the motto "25". Almost four hours of archive material in the rearview mirror, the headlights are nevertheless consistently directed forward.
A project like "25" has never existed before from the British Artrock/Trip-Hop-Formation Archive. On four CDs the ensemble around Darius Keeler draws from their own history. But there are so many new songs in the anniversary package that you could have made a complete album out of it. The message is simple: archives are what they were, and archives were what they are.
On the subject of "25 years of archives", two very conflicting ideas come to mind. What, 25 years already? Archives are still a relatively new band! At the same time, the question creeps through the back door: Only 25 years? Archives have always existed! It was precisely in this conflict that the numerous members of the archives as a whole found themselves when they conceived their compilation, which is difficult to classify in terms of time. "We were always outside of everything," Keeler states. "We were never very popular, there was neither hype nor cult around us. We had no big hits, were always somehow in the background and yet always present. A band like Kings Of Leon or other so-called Big Acts have their specific time to which they are committed. They have this one big moment where the whole world lies at their feet. Archives never had anything like that. So we can grow and develop as we please. All this together makes it difficult to classify us, both stylistically and temporally."
Guitarist and singer Dave Pen compares it to Mogwai, who also defined their own genre. More and more bands streamed onto the scene, for which just as many new subgenres were invented. But it is important to remain recognisable. And you can only do that if you don't submit to trends or currents. So the songs on "25" are put together to an original story. The historical songs are taken out of their context and mixed with the new tracks. In this sense it is not a conventional compilation. The topicality of the material collected over 25 years is astounding. "It's a bit confusing, and we've also confused the record company a bit," laughs singer Pollard Berrier. "We wanted to celebrate what we had created, but we also always look ahead. It must feel like we're just getting started. That's why there are so many new songs on the album."
