Shels Rehearsal Part One

Cramped in Clapham

In a grotty basement rehearsal space beneath a bar in Clapham, South London, Shels play out their music. 6 guys squeeze into a tiny room and play to an audience of two, both of whom are large green scaffold poles that hold up the ceiling.

It's a brisk Sunday afternoon and after a fine English breakfast with Simon, one of the three Shels guitarists, we head to bar whose name I fail to notice and a phone call is made. A couple of minutes of waiting, a fire escape door opens from the inside and I'm introduced to Tom, the drummer. We make our way through a cold concrete corridor, past a pile of rubbish bags, down a narrow grey concrete stairway and through a room that would appear to store the coats forgotten the night before and also houses a large noisy machine of no obvious function. Past all this is the cramped rehearsal space and some adjoining rooms that contain several drum kit carcasses and old unused studio equipment. Over the next few hours the band plays through current songs and reworks some arrangements. Arif on trumpet has the hardest task today as the band try transposing their music to a different key. Everyone else just retunes. All of this is done with a relaxed but obvious dedication.

Shels are headed up by Mehdi who writes the music; a friendly Californian with plenty of passion for his work who splits his time between the USA and the UK. The rest of the band is based in the UK so rehearsals only occur when they are all in the country together. This makes them slightly unusual; they are not a band that writes and rehearses week in week out without fail so when they get together it is for a specific purpose.

When you listen to the music the location seems unlikely and unfitting but the band is oblivious. There are layered soundscapes, stripped back riffs, perpetual beats and emotive melodies. There is also a common rhythm to much of the music they play. The rise and fall in volume and various densities and intensities of sound they create contain the dynamics. It is these dynamics that form one of the primary appeals of this band and it is also one of their most identifiable characteristics.


(Click to enlarge)