TC&I: “Great Aspirations”, XTC’s Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers present new EP

Fans of XTC will be thrilled to know that bandmates Terry Chambers and Colin Moulding, the rhythmic powerhouse behind the Swindon-based legends, have reunited to release new music under the tongue-in-cheek name of TC&I. Their new ‘Great Aspirations’ EP consists of features four new original recordings that allow us to fully appreciate Colin’s English pop vision.

On this debut offering as TC&I, Moulding and Chambers put their XTC history behind them to create some truly original music. Not only is this a new start, but also a thing apart from their musical past. This is also the first new material from Moulding in many years.

“I thought I’ve got to do something, you can’t just sit around and eat chocolate cake and then you get the inkling that you should start writing again and you start meddling and the next thing you know Terry’s on the door step,” says Colin Moulding.

Terry Chambers adds, “You’re only here once in your life and this felt a bit like unfinished business. When I left XTC it wasn’t the greatest set of circumstances and you can’t go through your life thinking ‘what if?’ so when Colin offered the opportunity I thought, yes lets do this again.”

The EP delivers XTC’s trademark qualities of melody, rhythm, variety, and idiosyncratic subject matter, mixed in with nostalgia fuelled by an understated political anger. In following with his songwriting history to date, Moulding shows an appreciation of the good things, such as friendship, landscape and longing. Here he again reminds us of what we stand to lose in the name of progress, looking at the rapidly changing world around him.The piano-charged lead track ‘Scatter Me’ explores mortality and the inevitability of returning to the mere building blocks of the universe while still remaining part of the landscape you spent your life in. The underlying message of the song is underlined by a tasteful video by Laima Bite. “When you get to 62 there’s melancholy all around and you have to try and beat it away with a stick. I think it is sort of a bitter sweet sensation, tinged with sadness but also upbeat as well,” says Moulding.

‘Comrades of Pop’ conveys words of warning to young musicians, while the more rocking ‘Kenny’ regrets children losing their playgrounds to urban development. On ‘Greatness’, Moulding fearlessly reveals still-burning apirations to reach the heights of Churchill, Hitchcock, Spielberg, Gershwin and McCartney.

XTC was founded in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1979 that XTC had their first UK charting single. Moulding had written the first three charting singles (‘Life Begins at the Hop’, ‘Making Plans for Nigel’, and ‘Generals and Majors’). Chambers left the lineup in the 1980s, while Moulding continued his partnership with frontman Andy Partridge through the group’s 2006 dissolution.

The TC&I release is well timed with the broadcast of the much anticipated eye-opening XTC documentary ‘This Is Pop’ about the history and legacy of the group, which looks at XTC and their journey from mercurial pop outsiders to full blown national treasures and one of Britain’s most influential yet unsung bands. Renewed interest in XTC is also due, in part, to a campaign that former bandmate Andy Partridge has undertaken to reissue the bulk of their back catalog.

“I think the word is out. It’s taken a bloody long time, but I think people are catching up and appreciating what we did,” says Colin Moulding.

TRACK LIST