UK Band The Cooper Temple Clause
An Intro to Reading's Underappreciated Band via the Hardware EP
The Cooper Temple Clause defied classification throughout their short career, combining hard indie rock with electronic elements like mini-moog, backmasking, and samples.
The Cooper Temple Clause have been compared to post-hardcore bands like At the Drive In, harder-edged members of Britpop era groups like Oasis and the Charlatans, and credited with trying to effect a prog rock revival. They inspired psychotic devotion in their fans, perplexed curiosity in critics, and got swallowed up by circumstance before they had a chance to take the world by storm. Or force, as the case may be.
Cooper Temple Clause (or, more colloquially, the Coopers) songs can feel somewhat schizophrenic; the band not only shifted dramatically from album to album, but sometimes from song to song.
The Hardware EP
Their first ever release, The Hardware EP, is perhaps the classic example of just how difficult to categorize this band is. With only 4 tracks, it runs the gamut of the Coopers’ abilities as musicians.
Opener “the Devil Walks in the Sand” is an almost Middle Eastern-flavoured hard-edged rock song with haunting lyrics that hint at a political statement a little too opaque to fully grasp: See all we see/And touch all we breathe/Feel his dreams through us/Living the recess/Woken in hunger/Electron alarm/Uncle Sam is spared/The carrion keeper.
Second song “Solitude” is one of the shortest songs the Coopers ever wrote. At 3:20, it’s a stomping instrumental with a relentless angry guitar hook that propels itself through spoken-word samples from Moody Blues songs and God knows what else. The electronic effects save themselves from being oppressive only by disappearing as quickly as they assault the ear.
“Safe Enough Distance,” the third song, is the sort of song that has unfortunately garnered the band a few comparisons to emocore. Listening to singer Ben Gautrey’s gut-wrenching delivery, one gets the impression that lyricist Dan Fisher has had a very, very depressing love life.
Final song “Sister Soul” is a glimpse of the band’s softer side. Sung by Fisher, the song is a haunting acoustic number, his plaintive voice and carefully plucked guitar part set against a lingering electronic waterfall of sound.
Despite how difficult to classify this band is, this succinct little EP manages to encapsulate the essence of the Coopers’ songs. Their first two albums by and large follow the searing guitars and electronic cacophony of the EP’s first two songs, and the second two songs hint at the soft, sometimes disturbing and sometimes sweet melody that characterize their b-sides and a good portion of their third album.
See This Through and Leave
The Coopers signed to RCA in 2000 and released more than a dozen EPs and singles before finally putting out their debut album, See This Through and Leave, in 2002. The hard, sometimes raunchy sound and curse-laden lyrics frightened off a good number of would-be listeners. It is, I think, an album that has to grow on you.
Kick Up the Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose
Only a year and a half later in late 2003, the band released their second full-length album, Kick Up the Fire and Let the Flames Break Loose. While still incorporating their characteristic electronic cacophony, this sophomore effort was in some ways gentler and more melodic, consequently more accessible and as a result more successful.
It received mixed reviews critically. However, propelled by singles “Promises, Promises” and “Blind Pilots,” it ultimately charted at #5 in the UK. It was the highest chart position the band ever received.
Make This Your Own
Between bassist Didz Hammond leaving in 2005 to join Dirty Pretty Things and the Coopers leaving RCA in 2006, the much-anticipated third album was delayed and only released in early 2007. Make This Your Own, though more adventurous than previous releases in some ways, has generally been regarded by both critics and fans as the work of a band in flux.
Unfortunately, the Coopers never had a chance to right themselves and become a viable 5-piece. After guitarist and primary lyricist Fisher told his bandmates he was leaving to pursue other interests, the band split in April 2007.
