“I’m not crying, you’re crying,” English Teacher’s Lily Fontaine assures us, over interweaving guitars and busy drums on a track yet to be released to the masses. For Independent Venue Week, the Leeds four-piece are covering ground across England, but first – one quick debut stop off in Cardiff, with support sets from Splint and ‘Taurus punks’ Papa Jupe’s T.C.

Having caught English Teacher at last year’s Green Man, I couldn’t turn down the chance to hear more of the band’s material – and the old stuff again, for that matter. Opening with The World’s Biggest Paving Slab, English Teacher deliver frantic, odd-time segments of instrumentation into choruses that pop: with their first song of the night, they ease us in. 

Overlaying parts with angelic vocals, 2022’s Polyawkward EP shows an understanding of the angular side of things and the nitty-grittiness of pandemic Britain. Their newer songs – I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, Mastermind, Albatross and Broken Biscuits – also encompass similar jagged edges, ambient arpeggios and stop-start hits.

Made up of Lancashire vocalist, rhythm guitarist and synth player Lily Fontaine alongside Leeds Conservatoire bandmates Lewis Whiting (guitar), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Douglas Frost (drums), English Teacher recently released their newest single Song About Love via Speedy Wunderground – the writing opportunity being something the band had wanted to do since the release of early single R&B, which to the crowd’s delight also made an appearance. Song About Love is delivered in the same single-note groove as Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer before progressing in intensity; Fontaine’s light vocals are substituted for shouts in its final moments, and again during R&B’s urgency. “Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B / Even though I’ve seen more Colour Shows than KEXPs.”

You’d be mistaken for thinking English Teacher are the sort of band to disappear on the same hype list they arrived on, their recent shows a reflection of their punchy, always relevant, unconventional songcraft. Building layer after layer in quick succession, it seems the group’s foundations are strong and witnessable from the first count-in. 

English Teacher, Splint & Papa Jupe’s T.C., Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Tue 31 Jan

words and photos EMMA WAY