91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Music features, reviews and "first listens" from NPR. Find more music at WUNC's Back Porch Music.

Until The Ribbon Breaks: Tiny Desk Concert

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

The beauty of the Tiny Desk lies, at least partially, in the limitations of size and technology. We rarely amplify voices, for example, so for a band like Until The Ribbon Breaks, the challenge becomes how to take a loud electronic sound down to a volume where singer Pete Lawrie-Winfield can be heard. In this case, the solution involved a spaghetti strainer, a paint bucket and an acoustic guitar.

It wasn't easy for Until The Ribbon Breaks to devise new arrangements for tried-and-true songs like "Pressure," from its full-length debut A Lesson Unlearnt. But it worked, because the Cardiff band's dance beats are always secondary to strong melodies and songwriting.

Set List

  • "2025"
  • "Pressure"
  • "Until The Ribbon Breaks"
  • "Spark"
  • Credits

    Producers: Bob Boilen, Maggie Starbard; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Morgan McCloy, Maggie Starbard; Assistant Producer: Colin Marshall; photo by Colin Marshall/NPR

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Email
    In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.
    More Stories
    1. Why does TB have such a hold on the Inuit communities of the Canadian Arctic?
    2. Whistleblower Joshua Dean, who raised concerns about Boeing jets, dies at 45
    3. Biden says he supports the right to protest but denounces 'chaos' and hate speech
    4. NYC mayor says 'outside agitators' are co-opting Columbia protests—students disagree
    5. Who will pay to replace Baltimore's Key Bridge? The legal battle has already begun