Rattle – Encircle (Upset The Rhythm) – We got the first rather fine fifteen minute taste of the new album in the shape of Your Move late last year, that first taster from Nottingham duo Rattle’s forthcoming third album Encircle saw the duo expand what really are rather unique experiments in rhythm, metre and tension. That first taste promised much with that mesmeric, almost boundless, hypnotic minimalism of double-drums and the often wordless almost tribal vocals of Rattle’s Katharine Eira Brown. The album more that lives up to thr promised offered by the first track.

“The images in my head for the first half of Your Move were water – reflecting in pools, and flowing” explained Katharine. “Then the second half is like it is stuck in an endless slow-moving cycle. The bit in-between is the flitting in-between, we wanted it to feel like a CD getting stuck. The words Your Move might be about moving in an embodied way or freedom / movement / expression, but they are also an emboldening call to action – it’s your turn – what are YOU going to do, what’s your next move?”

And now here we are with the full album and it seems these fifteen minutes of Your Move set us up perfectly, and yes, you will feel as much at ease with the whole album as you do with thsr first taste, completely at ease. “The stampede is moving in slow motion”. It does all feel tribal, the whole thing does but then it also feels rather English…

“Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists.  They’ve released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim, they’ve performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartet and Codiene”.

It is about Rattle’s (rather special) chemistry, the way they feed off each other, the way the two of them inform each other, the space and time they allow each other, It does all feel intriguingly tribal, the whole thing does. But then it also feels rather English but not in the negative way that could be read, not in that way that makes you not want to admit you might be English. It isn’t Pagan, it is something kind of like that, certainly not Pagan, it is a tribal thing, not obviously so, it maybe kind of feels like the tracksuit and hobby horse period of Gazelle Twin? Whatever it is, it feels good, it feels inviting, it feels like performance art. All Burning is particularly beguiling, the twelve minutes of closing piece Argot sounds almost religious, but then in that way it isn’t Pagan, it isn’t quite religious either. Rattle are rather impossible to place, positively so, this is far (far) more than just a stuck CD, and yes, Encircle could well be emboldening if you want it and indeed Rattle to be. Recommended. (sw)          

Bandcamp / Upset The Rhythm / Facebook

The album is released on February 28th, 2025.