DESIGNER MAGAZINE - November 2006

There's the several reasons why Carlis Star are great and one of them is that they kept fans waiting for 6 years for their first ever gig tonight. It's a period where they'd amassed about 200 songs but Brian Wilson like they didn't dare let themselves out of the studio until they'd perfected every single song. The other reason is that they don't sound like any band out of Manchester, hell they don't even sound like any band out of Britain. Ask them to list their influences and they'll list off the Beach Boys, Weezer, the Pixies and Elliot Smith - a combination of the great artists of the past 40 odd years bundled into one package. With just a small warm up show to friends, this marks the official debut gig, but you wouldn't be able to tell. Moogs fire off, distorted guitars crunch and the 3 part harmonies swell with each and every song. For those that haven't heard the songs before it must be disconcerting because Carlis Star are far from conventional making a wall of sound that often resembles white noise rather than Phil Spector's glossy sheen. F**king amazing!

Alex McCann