The 3 Clubmen, the “three-headed Frankenstein’s monster dancing at a neurodivergent singles club” featuring XTC‘s Andy Partridge, have released their self-titled debut EP. You can hear elements of XTC’s early angsty years and their later orch pop era in their four tracks that are as much a creation of fellow Clubmen Jen Olive and Stu Rowe as they are Partridge’s.
“I’d go and hang out at Stu’s bunker, because it’s better than ‘playing with yourself’, arf arf, no, I think of him as a brother and love being down at his place,” says Partridge of how the project came about. “He’d say things like, ‘Andy, listen to what I found, that I think we’ve forgotten, it’s really good’ or things like ‘I sent this idea to Jen and she zapped this great vocal suggestion back.’”
The culmination of a decade of antics from these longtime collaborators, the EP is an avant-pop delight offering a seductive blend of experimental pop, jazz and sci-fi soundtrack strangeness.
While each artist has worked with the others in some form since 2008, The 3 Clubmen marks the first time that Stu, Andy and Jen have combined forces as a trio, an inevitable partnership once described as “a three-headed Frankenstein’s monster dancing at a neurodivergent singles club”.
Andy Partridge– vocals / guitars / keys / programming / production Jen Olive– vocals / guitar Stu Rowe– bass / guitars / keys / programming / production Additional instrumentation- Frank Abrams – Flute / sax Curtis Tweed – Slide guitar Andreas Rebhuhn – Drums ‘Bangy’ – Percussion,.
The Fat Angel Sings 