James Cleaver Quintet

James Cleaver Quintet

James Cleaver Quintet, also known as JCQ, is a British group associated with post-hardcore, hardcore, stoner punk, screamo and indie. They are based in Birmingham and are also described across their recordings and coverage as a post-hardcore, punk rock, art punk, garage punk and mathcore band. Their music is noted for combining thrash riffs, breakdowns, fast drumming, abrupt tempo shifts, atmospheric breaks and prominent guitar work, while also drawing on elements from swing and other styles.

Early releases and debut album

The band’s debut extended play, Ten Stages of a Make Up, is released in March 2010. In August 2011, the EP is made available online for free ahead of the group’s first album. In January 2011, they release “Chicken Shit (For The Soul)” as the first single from their debut album, That Was Then, This Is Now, and tour the United Kingdom in February in support of the single.

That Was Then, This Is Now is released in October 2011. It receives coverage from outlets including the BBC, Drowned in Sound and Rock Sound. Around the album’s release, the group supports Turbowolf with Hawk Eyes across the United Kingdom, and later supports Enter Shikari and Limp Bizkit, as well as completing a co-headline tour with The Safety Fire.

Visual work and public profile

In August 2011, the band films a Lucozade advertisement in which the five members roll downhill in different vehicles while covering Feeder’s “Buck Rogers”.

Mechanical Young and later work

The band’s second studio album, Mechanical Young, is released in June 2013. It is recorded in Sweden with Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lovstrom, and the band records it live using vintage equipment because they want to capture the energy of their performances and keep the mistakes that remain in the takes. The album is received positively by British music publications including Big Cheese, Front, Rock Sound and This Is Fake DIY.

The album includes a wider range of instrumentation and textures, with tenor saxophones, syncopated rhythms, keyboards, harsh riffs and an extended outro. “Ghost Diffuse” opens with a doom metal-influenced guitar riff, while “Love’s No Good” is treated as their most commercial track, with a sing-along chorus and a funk-influenced feel. The three-part “No Kind of Man Parts 1+2”, with the piano instrumental “iii” between them, is described as the centrepiece of the album; Part 1 recalls the frantic hardcore punk of the first album, while Part 2 moves towards surf punk.

Style and influences

The JCQ are often described as a “viciously imaginative hardcore band”, and their work is noted for mixing hardcore with alternative and math-rock ideas. Blakfish, a Birmingham math rock band, are regarded as spiritual forefathers to the group.