Shadowparty (Manchester, UK-ENGLAND)

Genre:Electronic

ShadowParty are a band united by fairly unusual circumstances - each member is a latter-day addition to a huge band – here they’ve combined as synthpop’s answer to The Avengers.

The nucleus of the group formed when Josh Hager and Tom Chapman met in Boston, Massachusetts. Josh is a former member of The Rentals currently playing guitar and keyboards in Devo. Tom Chapman is the former bass player of Bad Lieutenant who followed frontman Bernard Sumner to New Order in 2011 when the band reunited for a series of charity gigs. Completing the group Phil Cunningham, Marion founder member and New Order’s guitarist since 2002, and drummer Jeff Friedl, of Devo.

Now they’ve completed an album that nods to those groups but exists in its own right entirely, a synth-pop album with guitars and strings, and guests including vocalist Denise Johnson (Primal Scream, A Certain Ratio) and The Verve’s guitarist Nick McCabe

Completing the guests Whitney Fierce, from Los Angeles on backing vocals, and Joe Duddell, the Manchester-based arranger who’s worked with – among many others – Elbow, Doves, and New Order,

Now on Mute (“It’s the perfect home,” says Phil) the band release their debut album