Ralph Of London is a shit-pop double act originating in East London, currently based in the North Of France. Ralph and Diane started putting out music on their own label in 2017 and have been playing shows in the UK and Europe with a rotating cast of musicians since, before deciding to homogenise their repertoire into a two piece in late 2022. They released their first official single "Hopeless Melody" in May 2019, followed by "Worlds End" in February 2020, which was the first song to feature the voice of Diane. In June 2020 they release "Dotty" as the last single from the album "The Potato Kingdom". Their latest EP "Yellow Sky Highway" was released in March 2022 and featured the singles "White Bred Blues" and "Flowers Of Edo". The EP was launched along side an online video game through which the audience were invited to play to win free downloads of the songs.
Songwriter, drummer, and producer Lewis (Ralph) Phillips, originated in Hackney Wick, and has developed various music, art and film projects in the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany and Japan, toured globally as a session musician, scored soundtracks for artists and performed at gallery installations across Europe since the early 2000's. As a session drummer, he played for various established artists including Scritti Politti (2006-2008) and from 2011 to 2021 in the band of Lawrence of Felt: Go-Kart Mozart. He co-founded bands such as The Proper Ornaments, Ezra Bang & Hot Machine and Bank of Joy, before producing music under his own name. His other practices include Super 8 cinematography, painting and sculpture. In 2015, Ralph was commissioned by Turner Prize winning artist Laure Provoust to score her full length feature film The Wanderer, and performed as a musician for her art installations at the Pompidou Paris and the Tate and Whitechapel Galleries in London in 2013 and 2017. In 2016 he produced two full length EP’s for the Swiss artist Ay Wing and performed with her across Europe. Since creating as Ralph Of London, he has put out a handful of online singles with self produced videos, and in 2016 he wrote and recorded his first full length album 'Longformacus' while on residency at the Gordon Burn Trust house in the wilderness of the Scottish countryside.In 2017 and 2018, Ralph went back to Longformacus for two spells of residency and wrote and recorded his second album "The Potato Kingdom". In late 2020, Ralph started working with Diane on new material, which included the "Yellow Sky Highway" EP, and the full-length album "Yellow Sky Country" which is due for release in 2023.
Ralph Of London's music spawned from the sub-genre infused British Pop undercurrent. Their sound is a compound of synthesised Rock and Roll, West African polyrhythm and English Folk tradition, fused into melodic pop of a subromantic lyrical narrative that glances in on our fragmented social milieu from the sidelines, bringing together an unconventional sonic tapestry delivered with sincerity whilst definitely maintaining a touch of introspection and self derision.