Primitive Parts

Primitive Parts are a London-based garage rock and garage punk group active since 2013. The band features Lindsay Corstorphine on guitar and voice, Kevin Hendrick on guitar, and Robin Christian on drums. Corstorphine, Hendrick and Christian have also been associated with Sauna Youth, Monotony and Male Bonding.

Formation and style

The group first practices in 2012, after the three members work together in a record shop in Crouch End. They set out to make music without fuss, with a sound they compare to Stiff Records in the 1960s. Their influences include The Deep Freeze Mice, Mick Jagger and Swell Maps.

Recordings and releases

Primitive Parts sign to Trouble in Mind in 2015 and immediately buy a Tascam 388 multitrack tape machine. Their debut album, Parts Primitive, is recorded over three working days in two locations: the band’s rehearsal room in Homerton and Corstorphine’s home in Hackney Wick, a former furniture factory. The album is tracked directly to two seven-inch reels of quarter-inch tape, mixed by Mark Jasper at Soundsavers and mastered by Mikey Young.

The album contains ten short songs that aim to suggest an imagined 1970s setting. Tracks including “Miracle Skin”, “Signal”, “Rented Housing” and “Troubles” draw on Australian garage rock groups such as The UV Race, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Total Control, as well as the pop style and British character of early Eno, The Kinks and Blur. The single “Being There” references the 1979 Peter Sellers film about a sheltered gardener, and the closing track “Ever Outward” includes an improvised ending played by all three members using drum machine and cassette loops.

Singles, labels and live work

Before the album, the band releases two sold-out singles on SEXBEAT and Faux Discx. Those singles receive airplay from BBC 6 Music presenters Marc Riley and Jenn Long, and attention from critics at Stereogum and NME. Primitive Parts also share stages with Twerps, Franz Ferdinand, The Homosexuals and Juan Wauters.

Artwork and references

The artwork for Parts Primitive draws on 1970s photo books such as British Image 1 and 2 and Euan Duff’s How We Are, along with old council and library letterheads and the thin paper picture sleeves used by groups such as Vain Aims and Protex.