Grasscut are a musical group featuring composer/producer Andrew Phillips and musician/writer Marcus O'Dair. Phillips writes and produces all Grasscut music; he also sings and plays various instruments including guitar and keyboards. O'Dair manages the act and contributes keyboards and double bass. They are based in Brighton, England.
Following the release of 1 Inch: ½ Mile, Clash magazine described Grasscut as "genuinely daring electronica artists", with the album appearing as Mojo magazine’s electronica album of the month, one of iDJ’s debut albums of the year and one of the top ten pop albums of the year according to the Sunday Telegraph. Speaking to the Quietus website, Tom Robinson of BBC 6 Music named it one of his top 13 albums of all time
Unearth
According to Andy Gill of The Independent, Grasscut's second album, Unearth, should have been on the Mercury list. Both records won 5-star reviews from the Telegraph; support has also come from the Sunday Times, Word, Uncut, Time Out, Q and Clash. They have had airplay from BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 5Live and 6Music, and have played sessions on 6Music and XFM.
Everyone Was a Bird
In May 2015 Grasscut released their third studio album titled Everyone Was a Bird. The album has been described by Clash as "an engrossing, artful work", and by The Quietus as "that rare slab of post-rock that uses the genre's textures and general ethos of exploration to create new sounds instead of rehashing old ones". The album features guest vocals from Adrian Crowley and Seamus Fogarty and strings by Emma Smith and Vince Sipprell. The liner notes were written by acclaimed landscape writer Robert Macfarlane and were premiered on the website Caught by the River in April 2015.
Everyone Was a Bird - Remixed
In March 2016, online magazine The Quietus announced Grasscut's fourth album was to be a remix album. The album includes remixes from artists including Mira Calix, John Metcalfe, Leo Abrahams and Penguin Cafe, and was released on Lo Recordings in the UK and Sounds et al in the US.
Live show
Since opening the main stage at the Big Chill festival in 2009, Grasscut have performed at Cecil Sharp House, Union Chapel, the ICA, Koko and Tate Britain, as well as in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland and Slovakia. They have shared stages with the likes of Kronos Quartet, Silver Apples, Caribou, Fink and Bonobo. Although they performed early shows as a duo, Grasscut have usually been joined onstage by drummer Aram Zarikian and string player Emma Smith. They are also known for their use of visuals, originally developed with As Described.
Link to landscape
Grasscut are known for their landscape-based concepts, usually emerging in collaboration with Pedr Browne. 1 Inch: ½ Mile came with a map detailing a walk through the ‘lost’ village of Balsdean, just outside Brighton. An audio clue, contained within a downloadable track, provided details of the location of a hidden artefact: a unique recording on a cassette. This idea was extended on Grasscut’s second album, Unearth. Each track was reimagined by Phillips, and these ‘shadow’ versions – again on cassette – were secreted, each with a Walkman, in specific locations around England and Wales.
