PHILIP SELWAY shares video for ‘Check For Signs Of Life’ from upcoming album “Strange Dance” & Announces UK and European tour dates

Philip Selway
Credit: Phil Sharp

With his new album Strange Dance due out 24th February via Bella Union, and having previously shared a visualizer for lead single “Check For Signs Of Life”, today Philip Selway shares a mesmerising and beautifully-shot black and white video for the track.

Produced by Uncommon Creative Studio with director William Williamson, the video features a quartet of renowned and award-winning dancers and choreographers: Siobhan Davies, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis. Siobhan Davies is one of the UK’s most celebrated dancers and choreographers while Simone Damberg Würtz is a leading light of the Rambert Dance Company, with whom Selway has collaborated, and is currently to be found playing the lead role of Polly Shelby in the company’s adaptation of Peaky Blinders.

Commenting on the video Philip Selway says: “The video for ‘Check For Signs Of Life comes from an idea I had to develop a dance piece over a series of songs from Strange Dance. I wanted the piece to explore imagined conversations between future and past selves and to be based around this particular quartet of dancers. The piece has been choreographed by Simone Damberg Würtz and Liam Francis. They both perform in the video alongside Siobhan Davies and Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp.”

Director William Williamson adds: “Working closely alongside Philip and choreographers Simone and Liam we set out to explore the complex relationship between future and former self through the medium of contemporary dance. Transcending time and moving through varied emotions, we wanted to create a film that will inspire the audience to hang their own narrative on. As we rehearsed, the intimacy and fragility of the choreography became so clear I decided to shoot it all in a single take. It meant pulling together the dance, camera and lighting, to communicate a sense of unity and power, which stays focused in the moment.”

Watch the video for “Check For Signs Of Life” – BELOW:

In other news, Selway was recently announced as an Ambassador for Independent Venue Week which is this year celebrating its 10th anniversary. In conjunction with the event Selway embarks on a 5-date UK tour in late January and early February. Selway has also just announced a run of UK and European tour dates for May 2023 including a headline performance at the Union Chapel in London. Dates and info below:

Monday 30th January – Norwich – Arts Centre

Tuesday 31st January – Cambridge – Junction

Wednesday 1st February – Hebden Bridge – Trades Club

Thursday 2nd February – Stockton-On-Tees – Georgian Theatre

Friday 3rd February – Guildford – The Boileroom

Thursday 4th May – Brussels – Ancienne Belgique Club

Friday 5th May – Paris – Café Del La Danse

Saturday 6th May – Amsterdam – Melkweg

Sunday 7th May – Berlin – Columbia Theater

Tuesday 9th May – Copenhagen – The Koncerthuset Studio 2

Monday 15th May – Glasgow – Oran Mor

Tuesday 16th May – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club

Thursday 18th May – London – Union Chapel

Friday 19th May – Bristol – Thekla

Saturday 20th May – Birmingham – Hare & Hounds

Sunday 21st May – Manchester – Gorilla

When Philip Selway approached some of his favourite musicians to play on his third solo record he said he imagined it as a Carole King record if she collaborated with the pioneering electronic composer Daphne Oram and invited him to drum on it. Unsurprisingly they were all sold, and so began the bringing together of an extraordinary number of gifted people, including Hannah Peel, Adrian Utley, Quinta, Marta Salogni, Valentina Magaletti and Laura Moody.

Foregrounding this remarkable union of musical voices was 10 songs written by Selway at home on piano and guitar that show him at the height of his songwriting powers. From the opening track, Little Things, we immediately hear a new sense of scale. Following the acoustic Familial, his first solo album, then Weatherhouse (slightly more fleshed-out, as he puts it, working with Adem Ilhan and Quinta), Strange Dance sees Selway using all the craft and learning he has gathered over the last decade of solo work outside of Radiohead.

This rich sonic broadness is constructed with a blend of strings, brass and synthesised sounds. “The scale of it was very deliberate for me, from the outset,” he says. “I wanted the soundscape to be broad and tall but somehow get it to wrap around this intimate vocal at the heart of it”. This cinematic effect makes sense given Selway’s most recent creative work, including writing scores for the Rambert Dance Company and soundtracks for the films Let Me Go and Carmilla.

The richness of the record is augmented by Selway’s long-time relationships with musicians such as the cellist Laura Moody and Quinta, a central figure in his work, and newer partnerships, such as with Adrian Utley. “There was a really lovely dynamic. Ideas happened easily. It was a really nice rapport between us all. “

The production by Marta Salogni is stunning: both sensitive and gleeful in its celebration of sound. When they were recording at Evolution Studios, the abstract painter Stewart Geddes came down to soak up the atmosphere in the studio, and created a spectacular series of impressionistic paintings in response to the music, one of which is the album artwork.

Selway – known predominantly as one of the most celebrated drummers in the world, playing in Radiohead for decades – actually “sacked” himself from the drums within a couple of hours of recording. Instead, Valentina Magaletti brought her “distinctive voice” to the drums and percussion. Another vital voice is the arrangements by Laura Moody which complement Salogni’s production. On What Keeps You Awake At Night, for example, the strings and synths spool out deliciously, in a meditative loop, taking the listener somewhere far away, and then six minutes in, a new texture appears, staccato-like rain drops adding to the whirl.

This sonic expressiveness is played beautifully by the LCO, conducted by Robert Ames, the Assemble Choir with arrangements by Juliet Russell, and the Elysian Collective.

As Strange Dance unfurls, it takes the listener through different weathers and seasons. Picking Up Pieces is driven by the motorik pulse of Utley’s guitar before bursting into a voluptuous sunlit chorus. The Other Side is a graceful, shiver-giving ballad which melts into a sensuous middle eight. Each song carries varied and diverse shades and textures of emotion. Lyrically, it is artful. Selway has a gift at writing heartfelt lyrics which could relate to any number of human experiences.

“One of the things I’ve liked about this record is it’s me as a 55-year-old not trying to hide that fact,” says Selway. “It feels kind of unguarded rather than seeing that ageing process as something that needs to be hidden.” And there is a buoyancy and warmth to the record; a sense of optimism and hope. “I wanted it to have that space so if you’re listening to it you can lose yourself in it,” he says. “Almost like a refuge.”

A few minutes into the album closer There’ll Be Better Days a new motif appears, as if a rainbow is appearing in the sky: rain and sun, hope and despair, life and death, and, in all of it, a celebration of the power of music, to accompany us all on this strange dance of life on earth.

Strange Dance

Strang Dance artwork and tracklist:

1. Little Things

2. What Keeps You Awake At Night

3. Check For Signs Of Life

4. Picking Up Pieces

5. The Other Side

6. Strange Dance

7. Make It Go Away

8. The Heart Of It All

9. Salt Air

10. There’ll Be Better Days

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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