"At a time when every band seems to be trawling the music of the late 1970's and early-to-mid 1980's, originality lies in finding an as yet untried combination of influences. The Organ have stumbled upon a beauty: Blondie meets the Smiths. The sound of this female five-piece from Vancouver is dominated by the pop-punk organ of Jenny Smyth and the vocals of Katie Sketch, who does honestly sound like the love child of Debbie Harry and Morrissey (and what a strange, strange love that would be). Deborah Cohen's spiky guitar work gives the band some distance from their inspirations, while Ashley Webber's bass wanders around the songs cheekily, as if trying to cheer everyone else up a bit. This six-track EP is a great introduction to a potentially wonderful band. **** " - The Sunday Times

"Having played some well received gigs in the UK, this female quintet from Vancouver ply a fine line in a stripped down, early 1980's sound on this mini-album. It's simple and direct, with little to distract from the stand-offish vocals apart from some driving, finely timed guitar and keyboard hooks. **** " - The Independent

"Fragile, eerie indie; hauntingly beautiful work." - New Musical Express

"The Organ effortlessly outclass the contrivances of strutting male peers such as Bloc Party and The Bravery. Stark, steely and streamlined, The Organ's sound is a rain-slashed melancholy, bleak but human, and never less than beautiful." - Metro

"All girl group the Organ have been gaining steadily increasing international acclaim since they formed in 2001. The influence of girl-fronted early 80's synth acts such as the Passions and the Tourists, and especially melancholic fellow Canadians Martha and the Muffins,shines through on 'Sinking Hearts'. With Cohen's pealing stabs of guitar ; Webber's dark, spiralling bass ; Stocks' thunderclaps of drums and Smyth's brooding, powerful Hammond organ, the Organ, however, have much which is distinctly of their own as well. Sketch's angular, bruised lyrics and soaring, echoing vocals are meanwhile a revelation. 'It's Time to Go' has her bored and feeling a rising sense of ennui and frustration with the rock world ("If you're tired of the scene/and rock doesn't mean a thing/and all the girls look bad when they sing/la da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da/it's time to go/it's time to go"). Other songs tell of betrayal and loss. On the disturbing, poignant 'There is Nothing I Can Do' Sketch cuts and slashes herself after she discovers her boyfriend has been unfaithful ("So someone snuck into your room/and it got back to me/Now I lie her in my room/and there is nothing I can do/but cut and think about you"). The last track, the mournful 'No One Has Ever Looked So Dead', has her recalling going star watching with a lost love ("In the backseat of your car/you showed me every single star/and how the zenith and the sounds change in every town/well it's over and I can't go there anymore"). Abstract and offbeat, the Organ's minimalistic arrangements underlie their spiky, sparkling centre. They are a haunting, mesmerising experience. Hopefully Britain, as well as North America, will be hearing much more of them in the near future. and in the years to come." - Penny Black Music

"Kicking off with Vancouver’s ace all girl group The Organ simply because, well to be frank simply because The Organ are almost illegally good, and their Sinking Hearts mini-album on the Sink and Stove label is the kind of record you run around clutching to your heart and sticking on repeat for days on end. 6 tracks, 14 minutes, all of it immeasurably Great Pop that gazes at stars and kicks through dunes with the sweetest smile of dark hearted romantic teenagers walking home at 3am. Some will fish around for reference points and will lump them in with a post-punk scene, but they will be wrong, just as they were wrong to consider Blondie as being New Wave when they were clearly just Great Pop. And we should never make excuses for saying something is Great Pop." - Tangents

"Vancouver quintet The Organ may be playing only their second ever show on these shores, but for the effortless drop-dead f.u. attitude coming off the stage you'd be forgiven for believing they were seasoned veterans. Mixing 'Seventeen Seconds'-era Cure with the deadpan aura of both The Shop Assistants and The Passions, The Organ offer a more subtle antidote to Interpol's cursive melancholia, and in Katie Sketch, have a vocalist whose delivery ranges from the depths of Morrissey's grandiose self-depreciation society ('It's Time To Go') to Liz Fraser's singer-as-sixth-instrument-actually persona, as the delightful 'Steven Smith' and the funereal epic finale of 'Let The Bells Ring' ably demonstrate. At the end, Sketch and co. seem quite humbled at the ecstatic response drawn from the sparse crowd, which means they'll be calling for the paramedics when Canada's best kept secret become headline news this summer." - Drowned In Sound

"There's something indescribably attractive about all-girl groups. Fair cop, it's because there are no lads involved – statistically, our chances are increased infinitely. So imagine the waves of excitement aroused by five Canadian ladies standing motionless doing the whole nu-new wave thing with emotionless statuesque charm. Actually, maybe it's best not to picture that scene.The Organ, an aptly entitled keyboard-involving quintet from Vancouver, are Interpol gone Ladytron; Joy Division without dicks. Oh, did we mention Morrissey? Yes, once again, just to clear up the confusion, Morrissey is a cunt. Send your tear-smudged hate letters to the usual address – we can take it. But if you took The Smiths' former frontman and strangled his quif-lashed arrogance from that irritating face until all that was left was his glib grasp of atmospherics, and maybe did some work on his genitals, he could very easily join The Organ. Pitch-shift Katie Sketch's echoing vocals and the similarities could be pretty damn spooky. After several ravenously received releases in their native Canada, they now have a UK label in the shape of West Country bastions of taste, Sink & Stove Records – a mark of quality in itself. The 'Sinking Hearts' EP collects tracks from the home version of the extended play and a sold-out 7", acting as a perfect introduction to the girls' detached sense of style. Sure, they've without doubt listened to The Smiths to the point where you might scream "pilferers", but while many dozen charmless dad-rock chancers have butchered their template into boneheaded submission, it's more unusual to see a clan of ladies wallowing in similar melancholia. The timing couldn't be any more precise either. Interpol were last seen selling out shows at Lamborghini pace, The Bravery have shot to an unexplainable size peddling the Eighties with extra gravity-defying hair gel, and everyone from The Ordinary Boys to Kaiser Chiefs are indecently assaulting the past for massive gain. About time somebody with breasts got in on the act and introduced something approaching decency to the whole shebang, huh? And although there's a feeling that the fully finished product is yet to arrive, plus the fact nobody in their right minds would usually endorse such cold reinterpretations of past tedium (Joy Division excepted), Sink & Stove have rarely been wrong before. So it might be worth leaving the cosy confines of home to check them on tour this month, if you don't accidentally catch them, for your sins, supporting The Wedding Present in London. Take them to your cold hearts." - New Noise

"I'm very wary of all-girl groups, because - and although by expressing this view I am a traitor to my sex - they're usually shit. So it's very comforting when some lasses turn up in the man's world of music and show what they're made of. The Organ are kind of like The Killers, with their reminiscent touch of early 80's New Wave, crossed with Blondie, which no-one can say they wouldn't be intrigued by. Born in the USA back on 2001, the band released their first ever 7" soon after, which subsequently sold out. They're like the eighth wonder of the world, because not even the most keen-eared talent spotter can pinpoint what's so special about them. The songs are seemingly casual, yet tightly formed to perfection, with sharp, tangy guitar licks and smooth organ and bass lines in stark contrast, that just fit. They have their own textured sound, melodic, wistful and intelligent. The only thing I'd change would be the echoed effects on the vocals. In my opinion, vocals should stay their crispest and cleanest on a record, but apart from that I couldn't say a bad word. The Organ aren't the type of band that will shoot into the charts any time soon, but they do have a certain something that demands attention; a coolness that will be admired but never completely understood." - Subba-Cultcha

"This album is by a Canadian all-girl band that appears to have created its own musical style in defiance of popular market trends. On the evidence of this six-track EP, I think the girls have succeeded in marking out their own very distinctive territory. Imagine an ordinary pub band with dead-beat drums, and a Hammond player with a smile tattooed to his face as he pays his instrument as if reading a playing instruction book. Well, this is not too far off the style that this band has cultivated, but it works! The first song, We’ve Got To Meet, opens with that dead-beat drum sound and a Hammond playing a repeated refrain, both at deathly pace. Then a distant, echoed, sharpy focused female voice kicks in with this single set of lyrics: “oh goodness me, we’ve got to meet. I need someone to have fun” Now if you think this sounds like a lot of nonsense you’d be wrong. It sounds simple, different and utterly beguiling. In fact so much so I played it during our recent RSL radio session. The pace quickens for the next song, I Am Not Surprised, that sounds very much like the first song but longer, with a full set of lyrics and a more complex structure. Yup, it hooked me as well. It’s Time To Go sounds like a further variation of the theme. Actually, what’s happening here is the girls have found themselves a sound, a musical identity and a different one at that. It’s one that has a mesmerising effect on the listener and forces one to stay the distance. It’s also a fresh and innocent sound, and when the tone and pace moves up a gear as in Sinking Hearts, that underlying sound remains. The next track There Is Nothing I Can Do reminds me of a wonderful, early Lisa Germano song. The short set of lyrics describes that awful self-cutting process: “so someone snuck into your room and it got back to me, now, I lie in my room and there is nothing I can do but cut and think of you.” This underlying sadness and pain dominates the EP. And the simple instrumental sounds, strong melodies combined with Katie Sketch’s detached and clear voice force one to consider what’s being said. I love this band and I love this EP." - Shake N Stir

"Have you ever wondered what would happen if you chopped off Paul Interpol’s netherbits and left him alone with a keyboard? We hadn’t either, until we heard The Organ. Vancouver’s five-piece all-girl answer to all the brooding basslines and defiant vocals that herald tales of doom and gloom from all corners of the western world. It’s new-wave but slower and less persistent. Sinking Hearts varies from the gloomy “We’ve Got To Meet” to the stony “I Am Not Surprised”. Singer, Katie Sketch, manages to sound disaffected and terrified at the same time, while the music transforms the twee keyboards into the means to a hypnotic end. “Sinking Hearts” stands out for it’s approximation of The Cure at a sleepover, but no, it’s not a girlie affair – it’s serious, and sordid and melancholic and quite nice. Nice, even if the next song, “There Is Nothing I Can Do”, begins with the abrupt line “My neck hurts” and ends nearly as abruptly and just as inertly.

At least there’s room for “No One Has Ever Looked So Dead” which dispenses all of the new-wave frippery for a twee take on alt.country. Katie’s voice is particularly morbid on the track, but it doesn’t change its sweetness. They’re a diamond in the rough, but we bet they scrub up nice." - The Stereo Effect

"This all-girl group from Canada immediately had the audience engaged with their sparkling melodies and the brooding vocals of Katie Sketch. They looked right together, and while Sketch moved her hips to the rhythm of the music, the rest of the girls produced an infectious wall of sound. 'It's Time To Go' was a big highlight, with it's simple guitar lines and flowing bass, this is a track made to get the audience moving. Title track 'Sinking Hearts' has one of those choruses made to sing along to and was also a big crowd pleaser. I strongly recommend you check them out." - Burton Mail

"My word, this is rather special. Devour The Organ now before they get eaten up by the hipsters, because they surely will. Each of the six tracks here exudes the kind of cool that is rare to find without the hype. Yet, hyped is the least that The Organ deserve. An all-girl quintet from Vancouver, The Organ have made this ep in the old fashioned way. That being the fact that each track is a corker. They are slightly new wave, but please don’t let that put you off, because they write SONGS too, and make The Bravery look like the Teletubbies. Take a pinch of Joy Division, Slits, Smiths and 21st Century attitude and you’ve got a quite exciting band. My, I think I’ve just blown a gasket." - Tasty Fanzine

"Vancouver quintet The Organ provide a sort of textured blend of New Wavey wry-pop that, were it delivered by Mozzer et al, would be the soundtrack to a thousand fey flower-waving emotional breakdowns. If the Smiths are leaning heavily on 'I Am Not Surprised' or the – er – organ-heavy 'It’s Time To Go', ‘Sinking Hearts’ sounds a little like latter-era Blondie singing the wrong hymn at a Church youth club disco, and 'No One Has Ever Looked So Dead' has more than a hint of the Costello about it (that would, of course, be Elvis, not his brother, Abbotand). There’s a sort of laid-back twinkle herein, given that the space in the arrangements is so satisfyingly unpushy, or the certainty that this is a band who know how to hold back and allow the tracks to develop without smashing them at you. As you read these words, by the way, the band are playing selected UK dates, but as you're reading this after the 7th April, you've missed them. Ain't life like that sometimes?" - Unpeeled

"The Organ are a disturbing all girl quintet from Vancouver. This isn’t the shlock-horror histrionics of Marilyn Manson, but instead a brooding, shivers-down-your-backbone kind of fear. These are the girls who play in disused quarry pits and hang out with Donnie Darko. They play a moody and melancholic Eighties influenced guitar sound, and through these layers flood the androgynous Katie Sketch’s cut glass vocals, so true and harmonious that you screw your eyes up with the blinding light she projects. They play the spooky Hammond organ-heavy 'We’ve Got To Meet', the bass rumbles and skinny Sketch’s vocals float around as she nervously skips around the stage, eyes tight shut except for when swigging her bottle of beer. The other girls stand almost motionless on stage and never look at their instruments. Guitarist Debora Cohen has a dead-eyed shark stare that fixes icily upon your heart and menaces you at a distance. If Tim Burton were to homage the Smiths…the result would be The Organ. Brrrr!!" - BBC Online

"The 1980s has always seemed a rather strange source of musical inspiration to kids from my generation. This isn’t a slight on that gloriously tasteless neon decade; it’s more a reflection of how dire popular pop music was at the time. Being just a slip of a lad at 24, I’ve got painfully vivid memories of Yazz leering out through my parent’s TV set on Top of the Pops, indiscriminately yelping her thinly veiled drugs references from beneath a barnet of horrifyingly artificial blonde hair. Having said that, I was also convinced, in my youth, that I could smell Christopher Biggin’s rank odour emanating from the screen whenever he oozed onto the set of whatever lurid televisual abortion happened to be babysitting me at the time, so it’s possible my powers of perception weren’t fully operational at the time. Either way, little did I know that underneath all the ghastly bobbins churned out by vile be-hairsprayed chart urchins like Bonnie Tyler lurked a rich seam of interesting, influential music which didn’t involve Phil Collins. Musing hard like a latter-day Euterpe (a toga clad hottie who came from Olympus to drop lyrical science into classical pederast’s uninventive ear holes: look it up, losers), the precise basslines, mournful synths and emotive vocals of 80s new wave are influencing a new new wave of new bands, bringing new waves of excitement to neophiles the world over. Weighing in at the more mournful end of the retro spectrum are the Organ, an all-girl five piece from Vancouver with a fine line in tersely melancholic new-new wave tunery, as showcased on new EP Sinking Hearts. Eschewing the hyperbolic yelping and shouting of Hot Hot Heat for the more studied sensibilities of our favourite chroniclers of being a pasty misery guts in NYC, Interpol, the Organ are a beautifully gloomy band. Simple yet melodic basslines sit on a leafy bed of beats so basic and stark they sound programmed, while a whirl of expansive guitars, pained Hammond tones, and ethereal vocals round off the band’s layered sound nicely. It’s gothic like Edgar Allen Poe moping around in an Edward Hopper painting: dark, discordant, and somehow comfortingly familiar. The short set of six songs on the EP run into each other thanks to a real aesthetic consistency, which could create problems for bands less in control of their sound. Although opener ‘We’ve Got to Meet’ kicks things off with a biting bassline and layers of atmospheric noise, contrasting with the gently drifting melodies seen in ‘No-one Has Ever Looked So Dead’ and the stark sound of ‘There Is Nothing I Can Do’, the changes in style continually give the impression that the Organ are a multifaceted bunch. It’s a fine line to walk between being consistent and samey, but this lot strut down it like particularly well-balanced and glum peacocks. Check it, then check it again…" - Speakers Push The Air

"Occasionally less is more. In the case of The Organ, it's less clutter, less needless distraction from Katie Sketch's wistful narratives. There's a stark, errant melancholy at work here, from the near-motionless sombre stares of her porcelain bandmates, the near-apologetic sparse, lilting Hammond melodies to Sketch's Morrissey-esque coo. Songs like 'I Am Not Surprised' and the disquieting resigned 'We've Got To Meet' are genuinely moving, whilst 'No-one Has Ever Looked So Dead' unveils 05's saddest refrain." - Venue

"Chiming guitars, pulsing bass, snappy snare drums, cool vocals, minimalist arrangements and neat melodies make this worth investigating." - Sounds XP

"The Organ don’t have a uniform as such but they are all uniformly cool; are mesmerising, magical, mythic in the making. In contrast to The Playwrights they barely move. The guitarist stands like she’s in a game of charades, picking out bewilderingly beautiful lines with the minimum of movement. It’s exquisite. The singer meanwhile clutches her hair and closes her eyes, lost in her melody haunted reveries. She looks iconic in the hard light of the floor mounted halogen spots, shadows playing on the walls and ceiling. The songs seem to float effortlessly out into the air, as if they were beamed into existence from some mysterious Pop Factory in the stars, The Organ merely some conduit through which the magic streams. And really, isn’t that true of all the greatest Pop? Sonically, sure, it’s hard to escape the early ‘80s reference points. The hinted at Joy Division allusion is there in soul if not exactly body, though the basslines have a tint of Hook about them in their supple grace. Similarly though you could say there are nods to Dub, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Much more relevant though, as I think I will tire soon of saying (but not yet!) is the Invisible Girls reference. There are more than a few touches of Pauline Murray’s reverbed vocals in the sound of The Organ, and more than any they are a group who truly deserve a contemporary Martin Hannett to guide and sculpt their sound with hands of ice and fire." - Tangents

"A few weeks ago I received a modest-looking, monochrome sleeved EP from a Vancouver based all-girl band called The Organ. No major hype, no major record label (unless Sink & Stove Records is big in Canada and, of course, Japan). Katie Sketch (vocals), Debora Cohen (guitar), Ashley Webber (bass), Jenny Smith (Hammond), and Shelby Stocks (drums) make up the band and have created a unique lo-fi brand of pop/rock that hooked me big-time. Musical drama is not what you will find here. In its place is a deadbeat, largely glacially-paced sound that is driven by mood and message. Hammond and drums dominate the instrumental backdrop until Katie Sketch’s voice comes sharply into focus. Sinking Hearts is the EP’s name and pretty well sums up the sound and vibe. I included one track (We’ve Got To Meet) in an RSL FM Shakenstir radio session here in Wrexham, so taken was I with The Organ. I then found out that the girls were on a short suck n’ see tour here in the UK and caught them on this date at Liverpool’s Carling Academy. If you’ve seen Bill Callaghan (Smog) or Will Oldham perform then you’ll understand when I say this band were cemented to the spot like the Tower Bridge. Animated they are not although Sketch did manage to unshackle her hands (a bit), show some facial expression, and even go walkabout on the odd occasion. But for the band to do anything else while performing their kind of music would have represented sacrilege of the most heinous kind. And boy did it work. I watched the very beautiful Cohen on guitar (very photogenic you understand) and she has to win the prize for keeping the same deadpan facial expression for the whole show. The show started with the downbeat and melodic Time To Go (from the EP) and the girls seemed to get quickly into their stride. The next song, Sudden Death, was new to me but comes from the same ‘life sucks, wrist slashing’ stable as the songs on the EP and was great, although the sound quality of the venue was not the best. Sinking Hearts was more upbeat, in fact it bounced along with Sketch giving a suitably detached, strong vocal performance. More ‘new’ songs followed - Basement Band, Memorize The City - and I understand that these songs are actually featured on the band’s full Canadian album release. Then my album favourite We’ve Got To Meet with its single line lyric, strong Hammond and drum backing, and Sketch giving the sort of performance that made a one-liner sound like a deeply descriptive chapter. Finishing on two more unknown songs (Steven Smith and Bells) I concluded that this unique-sounding band is likely to build a major underground following, and it’s probably where the girls want to be. You should check out the EP and if the girls return here for a second tour, try to catch them. You won’t be disappointed." - Shake N Stir

"After a first listen to this debut CD, it is easy to pass them off as a new wave act. But the Organ are much more than being just influenced by this decade, they approach the sound with ownership and courage. Singer, Katie Sketch’s vocals are so profound and ooze with bittersweet sadness. It is a feat that these shy, androgynous women can take on such a predominantly male sound and make it their own. Sketch has the ability to create a cult following for the band, similar to what Morrissey still possesses, it is the kind of CD that any indie-kid would quiver over. Full of loneliness and sorrow; Sketch’s misery is comforting. Smyth’s organ playing adds that lacklustre weariness while Cohen’s guitar playing has a simplicity that makes the Organ’s sound tight and confident. It is very exciting to hear an all girl band whose music is much more than just being a female band. An essential listen." - Scene and Heard

"The Organ are on their way up. What began as a casual indie-rock project by a bunch of girls who could barely play has developed…the end result is a band with an engaging stage presence, solid songs and an overall cool-cat persona that I would wager is just a few months away from the attentions of the world. If the UK’s NME magazine is so infatuated with the '80s sound of bands like Hot Hot Heat, they're going to devour this band’s sound like a late-night chip run after a footie game." - Chart Attack

"Vancouver's sombre sweethearts continue to wax melancholic and manhandle the early '80s in all the right places. The Organ's exceptional vocals, dreamy Hammond, white-hot guitar and steadfast rhythm, not to mention smart lyrics steeped in heart and soul, recall the likes of the Smiths and the Cure; a sound fit to rock and awe the dancefloor and the bedroom floor respectively. 8/10." - Mirror

"There's alot of potential in the debut UK release here from this incredibly hip young band. This is the outfit who you'd head out to see live even though you've heard nothing about them and you come back with half the merch stand, a signed set-list, a headful of melodies and a burning desire to evangelise them to the hilt." - Alternative Ulster

"This six-song EP instead favours a complex tangle of delicate rhythms and counter-rhythms - hinting at Joy Division and Wedding Present influences - weaving in and out of each other under a spun-out vocal. The lyrical subject matter is lost loves, changing times and the regret which you should feel but don’t; all sung in a matter-of-fact yet distant manner which often recalls The Smiths' more sardonic moments. Said songs also happen to be rather lovely, with tunes which worm their way deeper into your head with each listen until you find yourself humming them constantly and wanting to play the record again so you can sing along with their fragile melodic grandeur. Those who like thoughtful, understated indie music may well benefit from checking them out." - Drowned In Sound

"The Organ are disturbing, brooding, Donnie Darko-pally, moody and melancholic, they have a Hammond organ with which they belt out such pieces as 'We've Got To Meet', they have jangly, ice cold guitars and mean bass lines, and Katie Sketch's vocals are delivered with neat perfection, and eyes firmly shut. None of the girls look around, or at their instruments, taking occasional breaks only to glare at random members of the public - they have mastered the art of looking cool, better than most.Katie's vocal range must be the envy of her peers, she goes from the depths of 'It's Time To Go', which would have Morrissey grudgingly smile, to the flights and flows of 'Steven Smith' and 'Let The Bells Ring' (their last piece), reminiscent of Siouxsie and Elizabeth Frazer." - Subba Cultcha