Debut album from The Resurrection Club

Some stories in music aren’t about fame or fortune, they’re about endurance, friendship and the steadfast defiance of keeping the flame alive and that’s the story of The Resurrection Club, a band whose name feels almost literal. Formed by three school friends from Glasgow, Morris Fraser, Martin McLeish and Mike Paterson, their journey began back in 1979 as The Plastic Flies, a scrappy post punk outfit that made a modest but meaningful impact in Scotland’s live scene.

Back then, they were just teenagers with borrowed amps and big ideas; morris brought the musical backbone, Mike the intricate guitar work and Martin became the group’s charismatic voice. Between 1979 and 1983, they toured relentlessly, secured national radio airplay and even landed support slots for The Clash, the sort of validation every young band dreams of. But success, even in small doses, can splinter ambition an by 1983, they’d played their final show and drifted in different directions and the last time they saw each other in person was 20 January 1983.

However, decades later, something stirred and in 2017, contact was rekindled, an email here, a memory there and slowly, the idea of making music together again took form. By then, life had taken each of them far afield. Morris was running a studio in Edinburgh, Mike was still active as a guitarist and Martin had rediscovered his love for writing. That initial exchange of ideas soon became an exciting new project, they called it The Resurrection Club, a fitting name for a band reborn from memory, distance and time.

Recording together, however, wasn’t simple, the trio lived across continents, their creative process occurring entirely through file transfers and late-night messages. Sessions took place remotely between Melbourne and Edinburgh, guided at first by award-winning engineer Alberto Pérez at Sol de Sants Studios and later refined with producer and DJ Robin Twelftree, known for his work with The Prodigy, at his Barcelona-based studio and despite the miles between them, the sound that they forged was unmistakably theirs.

The result of that long-distance collaboration is Survival, their debut album under The Resurrection Club name and an apt title if ever there was one. It’s a record that captures both endurance and rediscovery, a collection of songs shaped by years apart yet bound by a shared sonic vision. The nine-track outing starts with the sweep of buzzy synth tones and bright instrumental plucks on opening track “Every Second Counts,” jumping into a lively synth rock jam brimming with snapping beats, colourful arrangement and compelling vocal leads carrying instantly catchy hooks.

Title track “Survival, Pt. 1&2” gently builds from atmospheric textures and hushed vocal delivery to a bright soundscape of pulsing rhythms and mesmeric melodic leads. Taking listeners on a transportive musical voyage across almost eight minutes of wholly absorbing music packed full of intricate twists and turns, it’s a dazzling jam unlike any other.

“Our Luck’s Run Out” flows through moments of stripped back aesthetic and passages of hypnotic sonic vibes capped by emotive vocal performance to cast a tender moment on the record. Other highlights include songs like “Rebel Diamond Rat Pack” which serves up an invigorating slice of the band’s rock-inflected sound, pairing crunching guitars with danceable rhythms.

“Lancaster Bombers” presents another spectacular musical adventure that glides with delicate vocals and minimal guitar-led instrumentation, gradually swelling with the soft rattle of synths to craft an enveloping soundscape that surges into an anthemic finale. Closing track “The Upstage” lands with the elegant flicker of strings before jumping into a bouncy jam of uplifting pop rock to deliver a stunning conclusion to the band’s superb debut album.

Listen to Survival below