Abstract Concrete – Abstract Concrete (The state51 Conspiracy) – Well if Mr Hayward is involved then things have got to be worth an ear. Abstract Concrete, so they say, are “another big step for UK underground heavyweight Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), joined by some of the most exciting and forward-thinking young London players from a diversity of European underground and experimental scenes. Bringing music which spans a wide emotional landscape focussed on connection and communication using a genre fluid sound world of song, groove and fire with all the lyrical intensity the world demands right now”. We’re happy to go with all that, but that first track don’t half sound like it revolves around a nice big fat juicy 70’s Genesis keyboard line, no bad thing of course and where am I? Where are you? This is an album laced with properly proper forward looking prog rock goodness. And yes,of course some of it sounds like This Heat, at times bits of it sound like 70’s Genesis taking on PIL and no, none of it is ever as obvious as any of that so forget everything that’s been said here so far and are you thinking what I am thinking? What are you thinking?

Outside of This Heat or (This is Not) This Heat shows, this feels like the most song orientated Charles Hayward has been for quite some time. of course it is experimental, of course it is, but experimental within the discipline of songs, within the framework. There is the post-punk flavoured prog, there are bits that get a little folky, there’s moments when it gets a little loungecore easy listening, all with that edge and that voice though, all with that rich full-bodied London voice of his. And words that need your ears as much as the playing and composition does. Did Ventriloquist/Dummy just out Hammill Peter Hammill (or Mr X) just then? I am his voice sings his other voice, he’s got that dummy by the bollocks, brilliant, he has no voice, he is his voice. Most of it sounds beautifully structured and never too hard-boiled of too difficult, yes there are what sound like bits of improvisation and things do take off, but never without inviting you onboard and taking you with it all. That Viola adds a lot of colour, all the players do, quite a few silver linings, details, interactions and the space between you and me and it all knits so well together so well, everything in the right place, coloured in just the right way, flowing on like a sentence that doesn’t quite have to end yet. Higher, higher, higher and making sense and are we ready to say goodbye to rock ‘n roll? Farewell, as if we ever cared? 

We’re getting spiritual now on The Day The Earth Stood Still, we’re deep in now, we could and maybe should mention The Doors and yes I know name-dropping other bands is never clever. downright lazy actually and now we’ve got all minimally quiet and we’re drifting and slowly slowly slowly almost not moving and the way the band pick it up again and slowly move things forward as those drums build it again is just so exquisite. Fast forward, freeze frame, like deja vu all over again and by now I’m probably talking to myself, clapping with one hand and once again, the wise will have jumped forward to the Bandcamp page and stopped reading this a long time ago. Fast forward, freeze frame, like deja vu all over again…. And then Tomorrow’s World take us somewhere else, almost pop music, and are we there yet? And surely everything we know is wrong and like night follows day, oh, just go listen for yourself, all about the sign posts and the links, music reviews are so last century. Excellent album, but then you know it would be. (sw)

Bandcamp

Previously

ORGAN THING: This Heat or not, that was magical. This Is Not This Heat sounding very big at the Barbican…