Firestations

London dream-pop ensemble Firestations are back with their first full album in five years. Preceded by the single
Undercover – an effervescent song about depression and self-discovery, available now as part of Lost Map’s
PostMap Club subscription service as well as via digital platforms from April 25 – Thick Terrain will be released
on limited-edition 12” vinyl and digital platforms on July 14, 2023. A clear-eyed and bold statement, deftly
combining big ideas with pop sensibilities in a captivating way, it’s the band’s best work to date. It follows
Firestations’ expansive and explorative 2021 EP trilogy Automatic Tendencies, which garnered extensive
support from BBC 6 Music including repeat plays from Gideon Coe, Cerys Matthews, Radcliffe & Maconie and in
particular Marc Riley, who hailed the track ‘Small Island’ as “a perfect pop song”.
Firestations are Michael Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson, Tom Hargreaves and Neil Walsh. Together
they make music spanning genres from shoegazey indie to synth pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their
debut album for Lost Map, The Year Dot, was released in 2018 and was hailed by The List magazine for
“pursuing ambitious social commentaries while playfully teasing its own sonic glitches”. The Automatic
Tendencies project – a prolific burst of creativity to stave off madness during lockdown – saw the band refine
their brand of conceptual alt-pop, with songs taking a closer look at themes of identity, belonging, progress and
escapism. It comprised three EPs released over a six-month period – Automatic Tendencies, Melted Medium
and Pixel Wilderness – each embracing a mixtape aesthetic, by including alternative “sunken” versions by the
band as well as covers and remixes of new Firestations tracks by other artists. Copsey, who is an illustrator,
curated collections of unique limited-edition artworks that expanded on ideas within each release, from a brass
chip fork to a ceramic mountain.
Thick Terrain sees Firestations find their way back to the full album format again at last, following a period of
writing and reconfiguration – bassist Giles Littleford departing for the Midlands, replaced by Walsh. In mid-2022
the band entered Otterhead Studios in Warwickshire, and quickly turned out a set of songs which felt like they
belonged together. Ten tracks, ranging from cyclical hypnotic sci-fi numbers to addictive dream-pop jangles,
exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity, or a lack of it. “Where is the joy?” sings chief
songwriter Michael Cranny on ‘Undercover’. “Is it over? Where is the joy? Still undercover?”

“Album titles are tricky,” says Michael, of the story behind Thick Terrain. “You just sort of have to go fishing in
your subconscious until you catch something that speaks to you. We had a series of pub-based meetings, where
we free-associated some of the meanings of the songs, just blurted things out and wrote them down. The regulars

probably thought we were crazy.

“There were themes of strange landscapes, psychology and disillusionment in the music. Laura came up with ‘ick
terrain’ – she’d been watching Love Island at the time (which she insists was cultural research) – apparently ‘ick’
is a thing and we liked the sound. The music also feels grounded in place, which speaks to the ‘terrain’ part. We
then adapted it to Thick Terrain, as Laura felt this would fit well with artwork ideas, given she is a big fan of thick
milkshakes. It was then only a slight sidestep to the ‘jelly on a spoon’ album cover (see below) – a collaboration
with our good friends and artists KeelerTornero – weird joy embedded in the landscape. Thick Terrain had a nice
weighty kind of weirdness about it that we all gravitated towards. It felt like it just had to be the title. We’re all in

the thick terrain.”

London dream-pop ensemble Firestations are back with their first full album in five years. Preceded by the single 'Undercover' – an effervescent song about depression and self-discovery - 'Thick Terrain' will be released by Lost Map Records on limited-edition 12” vinyl and digital platforms on July 14, 2023. It's a clear-eyed and bold statement, deftly combining big ideas with pop sensibilities in a captivating way - it might be the band’s best work to date.

Firestations are Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson, Tom Hargreaves and Neil Walsh – collectively a band that spans genres from shoegazey indie and intimate folksy warmth, through to addictive synth pop and harmony driven psychedelia. Lost Map released their second album ‘The Year Dot’ in 2018 and this was followed in 2021/22 by three EPs – ‘Automatic Tendencies’, ‘Melted Medium’ and ‘Pixel Wilderness’. Each six-track EP embraced a mixtape aesthetic, including alternative “sunken” versions of songs by the band as well as covers and remixes of Firestations tracks by other artists (including Lost Map labelmate Clementine March). Laura curated collections of limited-edition artworks (a brass chip fork, a ceramic mountain) that expanded on the ideas within each release.

Following a period of writing and reconfiguration – Giles Littleford departed for the Midlands and Neil Walsh ably filled his bassy shoes – the band returned to Otterhead Studios in mid-2022, for what they expected to be the first of a few recording sessions. As it happened though, it all came together beautifully (thanks to engineers Oscar and Ellis), the songs made sense together and it felt like an album.

Over the ten tracks – ranging from cyclical hypnotic sci-fi numbers to addictive dream-pop jangle – the band explore themes of identity, conflict, progress and sanity, or the lack of it. “Where is the joy? Is it over? Where is the joy? Still undercover?”

About the meaning of ‘Thick Terrain’, Mike says:

“Album titles are tricky – you just sort of have to go fishing in your subconscious until you catch something that speaks to you. To get to ‘Thick Terrain’ we had a series of pub-based meetings, where we free-associated some of the meanings of the songs, just blurted things out and wrote them down.

Laura had been watching ‘Love Island’ (purely for research purposes), and mentioned how contestants were constantly getting “the ick”. We thought about calling it Ick Terrain, but as the pints flowed we gravitated towards ‘Thick Terrain’. This spoke to the main themes of the album and fit in with the art concept that Laura and artist friends KeelerTornero were cooking up: edible landscapes - surreal vistas with strange, almost hallucinatory, food items embedded within them… A jelly mountain… The zine which accompanies the limited-edition vinyl release delves further into this idea, offering more delicious places to sink your teeth into as you listen to the record."