A Day Of Unrest

Through coniferous woodlands tinged with yellow gorse that lead to eroded cliff faces and soft sand wet from the ominous waters of the North Sea, this part of the Northern Hemisphere – the East Coast of the U.K. with its mythical stories of underwater villages, beasts that terrorised clergymen and Bond-Villain-style nuclear facilities seem like an unlikely location for a musical partnership drenched in European cinema soundtracks, American B-movies, oddball funk and a DIY post punk aesthetic. But this is the place where we find Paul Elliott and Dan Smith, known collectively as Eleven76. Nestled in their respective studios, experimenting and developing sonic textures, firing files across the internet and coming together to lay the foundations of compositions and to finalise mixes, Eleven76 have a process of work that marries the best parts of the analogue and digital worlds. Live instruments, spontaneity and a love for music are key to their workflow. With their four albums Space Voyage (2018), Occhio Occhio (2022), Synchronization (2023) and now with their latest episode A Day Of Unrest, Eleven76 transports the listener to parallel universes. Creating the soundtracks to films that do not exist is no mean feat. With smart compositions utilising vintage instruments whilst keeping an eye firmly set on the groove, the pair have been able to teleport the listener to retro-futuristic space missions, the cool sun-drenched European cities of the late 60s and 70s, through to intense dystopian b-movie thrillers of the early 80s. With A Day Of Unrest, Eleven76 produce a soundtrack album that fuses 70s US cop drama with Italian ‘giallo’. There’s tension, intrigue, moments of light and heavy groove, making “A Day Of Unrest'” a body of work that reveals itself more upon each listen. This thematic record draws you from imaginary scene to imaginary scene and your mind’s eye can see the narrative unfold in front of you as you listen. Working together for almost two decades, the work of multi-instrumentalists Paul Elliott and Dan Smith has included composing for TV, film and commercials, as well as writing and performing in both studio and touring bands. Paul began DJing in his early teens and has since developed a reputation as a wide-ranging collaborator and his projects have intersected with artists including Asha Puthli, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and Shawn Lee, reflecting a practice built on exchange, groove-led thinking and a creative instinct that continues to inform his approach today. Similarly Dan Smith has continually been a top tier co-writer and collaborator for both commercially minded, left field and avant-garde musical projects, which have seen him reach the top of UK charts with the Noisettes and for seven years become an integral band member of The Heliocentrics and now the Crazy World of Arthur Brown who he currently tours and records with. A musical architect, His genre-spanning ability and depth of knowledge is second to none. Their sound is built on a friendship and trust of musical taste, spontaneity, improvisation and an evolving collaboration. Eleven76 have a system – and it works.