THE RELICT is the personal project of Innes Phillips, a British artisan in the fine arts of making pulished, acoustic pop music. Although his discography is quite short so far, he has already managed to stand out in the always overcrowded Uk pop scene of today.
Innes used to play with THE CLIENTELE, another UK band that excels at writing delicate, fragile pop songs, they have also released a single in Elefant single club as well! Its pretty difficult to mark the frontier between two bands, as members of THE CLIENTELE play from time to time in THE RELICT (as in this single) and Innes may help THE CLIENTELE some time in the future.
Johnny Kane Records released "Along the way", the first single by THE RELICT. It included early compositions of Innes, written in 1996 by the time he was in THE CLIENTELE. Despite its beauty and quality Innes confesses it doesnt represent the aims of THE RELICT very accurately.
Two more singles ("Along the avenue" and "Held in glass", the latter a split with THE CLIENTELE) preceed "Off Church Street", a new display of talent and sensitiveness.
A peculiar fact about THE RELICT is that Innes wants the line-up to be as changing and open as possible, therefore every new release features different cameos from other artists. This single follows the rule: first song "Childlike" is enriched by the ethereal vocals of Pam Berry, who used to sing with THE PINES, GLO-WORM, BELMONDO, CASTAWAY STONES or BLACK TAMBOURINE; her pastoral performance can remind us of Naomi Yang (DAMON AND NAOMI).
"Places out of mind" is blessed by the guitars of Gavin Baker (BILLIE MAHONIE, JET JOHNSON), giving the track a very special magic touch. "Letters" is a delightful vocal duet of Innes and Abi Marvell (who also sings in the split single "Held in glass"). To end with, in "I saw your eyes today" Innes counts with the background of Alasdair y James of THE CLIENTELE.
Taking into account the excellence of these four songs we all should pay attention to the forthcoming musical steps of THE RELICT.