Ne-nah ne-nah it's Ambulance

Witnessing one of Ambulance's live shows is a sight to behold, they're energetic, sweaty and confusing. One minute slacker rock, one minute parping a bugle, the next they're jamming on their Theremin. They're half geeky, half red-neck chic and mostly messy. Yet from this bag of shambolic chaos they still manage to pull something strangely unique and interesting.

Much of their tardiness has to be blamed on their relaxed approach to being a signed band. For starters they live in three different cities between the four of them, Liverpool being their spiritual home, but also residents of York and Edinburgh. Though their lax approach to music making is very much part of the Ambulance sound, they themselves confess that they "hardly ever play live. It's just a load of hassle."

If you've never seen or heard Ambulance, by this point your gonna be thinking "well why the **** are you doing a feature on them then?" Well because Ambulance don't need to be stylish, to concentrate or even rehearse, because to some degree here lies some of that ol' mystical, magical, natural genius. Their performances are so rare and bizarre that they've already reached an almost cult-like status amongst Liverpool's more clued up gig-goers and possibly beyond.

They approach each gig as a new version of an idea they've toyed with in the studio, "we don't try to piece together what we've recorded and recreate it on Stage." Says Graeme, guitarist, bugler, drummer and megaphonist amongst many other things. "We just take the bare bones of the songs and try to play it as best we can onstage."

Ambulance lack a nominated leader or spokesperson, after each question all of them gaze round for almost a minute, until one of them answers, this person is usually Adam, who I suspect is the driving force of the band. He is also the most charismatic, his bobbed curly hair, beard and sunglasses giving him a striking cool messianic appearance. He insists the band is the result of equal efforts from all of its members. "It goes four ways, we all do vocals, but it depends on what kind of song we've got."

This democratic approach to the band means that their sound really does vary from song to song, and it sets them apart from almost every act around. Adam reckons that this is not a conscious effort to be different; "We're just doing what we think we should do. A lot of bands get together and go: 'Right we're gonna be a metal band' or, I dunno a post-rock band or something like that, but we've never done that."

The band's now infamous 12" release of 'I'm A Star I'm An Angel', that features the track's title looped from virtually start to finish is awash with lo-fi bleeps and noises. The track is almost dance / almost indie and was originally released on Honey Records but has since been re-recorded for their new EP. "We weren't really happy with the old version. That was really the first time we'd gone into a studio, we were put with a producer we didn't feel comfortable with. Looking back at it we realised we could do it better."

"A lot of assumptions are made about how you should go about making music and 99% of it's shite. Things have developed so that it's the done thing to make a demo then go in and do it with a producer. Most of the producers around are ****ing wankers. They couldn't make a decent tune to save their grandma, y'know what I mean? But then most bands need a producer anyway."

You get the feeling that left to their own devices Ambulance could produce a truly grand masterpiece, but we wouldn't get to hear it. The band are far too introverted to go around bandying their work under peoples noses. Luckily then they've been signed up by Robot Records, part of the Tri Tone family who will be releasing their new EP on the 28th of October. If there is one band from Liverpool whose records you should have in your record collection it has definitely got to be Ambulance's.

Photos by Eventa and Shelly Turner