More albums, more cherry picking through the mountain of albums that land here, more picking of the cherries, picking off the cherries, the never ending pile of demanding cherries that find their way here on a daily basis. You surely know the policy by now? We do, on the whole, only feature the albums and things we feel positive about. We really don’t have time to clutter up these already overloaded pages with negative coverage of things that do nothing much for us, there isn’t the time or space, there isn’t any need, although some times there probably is. Here’s another three or so as we ease through towards Spring and…
Wildernesses – Growth (Floodlit Recordings) – Another of those big expansive post-this, post-that, post-rock, post-gaze bands, whatever they want to call it, Wildernesses do have a little extra, and thankfully, crucially maybe, they’re not as obvious about it as most self-declared post-this-and-that bands are. Wildernesses blend things so well, they’re refined, they’re crafted, there’s a touch of ambition to the London band’s debut album, they clearly want to be a bit more than just another one of those bands. This is an album and a band who aren’t that easy to pin down, rather like that they’re not that easy to pin down, most bands are far far too easy to pin down and clearly Wildernesses like a fable, a story. They’re about things, about people, feelings, dynamics, interactions, a love of things, they have something that has you wanting to avoid the usual cliches about cinematic scope and understated intensity that are usually written about these kind of bands.
Summertime, 1917, maybe explains the Wildernesses thing more than any of their fine pieces, it isnit that it stands out any more than the other eight pieces of work here as it quietly explores love and loss, telling the story of two male soldiers in World War One, seen through the eyes of a modern narrator who discovers their love letters while renovating a deceased loved ones house. Vocalist Phillip Morris on Summertime “I based the lyrics on a poem I wrote the year after my mum died of Motor Neurone Disease. I wanted to explore the conflicting feelings I had at that time, the process of acceptance, finding reasons that everything would be OK, even as death is final. Caring for her was a privilege that allowed me to know her more deeply but I also witnessed the cruel loss of movement that ended in her death. I never renovated her house but the imagery of reworking a space appealed to me. The song’s lyrics aimed to reflect on social issues in a literary way, rather than an overtly political way. We all know war is bad; my aim was to zoom in on two singular stories across time and make the listener feel them, rather than just consider a message”. And it is in that explanation that we really find the essence of band, of the (simple) pleasure that’s to be found in spending time with this rather warm album.
Growth is an album that lets you take a step back, that invites you to just get off the ride for a while, an album that, without really being that revolutionary or radically different just gets it right, that mix of Slowdive and Explosions In The Sky, that and actually songs that have an idea where they would like to go, that might lift you from the English Darkness – okay, so that is a standout track. Just a really good (debut) album. Bandcamp / Website
Wot Gorilla? – Stay Home (Drongo Records) – The band from Yorkshire have quietly sneaked a new album out, regulars on our Other Rock Show over the last dozen or so years, they say Stay Home is “the sound of us reconnecting with why we started this band in the first place and that “the album distils over a decade of angular riffs, complex rhythms and melodic urgency into their most cohesive statement yet”. It sounds very much like you’d expect them to sound, that familiar math-rock/post-hardcore loud/quiet blending, that vocal style, the busy tempo changes, the cramming in a million high speed angular riffs that now and again give way to something a little more poppy and dare we say emo flavoured. Yes, it is sharp, it is lean, it is at times intense, never excessive though, never too much even if it does kind of feel like something we are maybe a little too familiar with now. Yes, it is that wiry collision of intricate rhythms, melodic hooks and restless energy and yes, there is the odd existential, some around here might argue essential “What time signature is this?” moment. Yes, some of it does peck, some of it does go off and things, that screamo-emo-beano vocal style might grate at times, it undercut with a sense of melody though, there are different colours here, cracks covered up well however much common sense might be in short supply and It’s not what you know, It’s who you know, And the light and sound and does anyone give anything any more? All those daily reminders that the world is indeed crumbling it is still worth devouring this far from rotten core though and they don’t share a band name with a Genesis song for nothing and yes, clowns and broken worlds and do we need a band from Halifax to remind us of this again and again? Stating the bleedin’ obvious? That some might say over-familiar screamo-emo math rock post hardcore thing then, they do do it well though… Bandcamp
Maria BC – Marathon (Sacred Bones) – Marathon feels reflective, intimate, warm, very (very) personal, almost inward looking, kind of private (if ever an album of this nature can be private?), something that comes with a sense of determination and endurance so she says –
“Marathon reflects what it means to keep going whether you’re resisting or just surviving, you’re in it for the long haul”.
A quiet album, almost whispered at times. Thirteen songs that don’t shy away from difficult topics, that take on cruelty and complicity, loss and destruction. It does offer hope though, it is positive or at least offering something hopeful, it does connect, a connection both in terms of intimacy and interference; “Sometimes when I write songs, I imagine the voice that’s singing is a kind of spirit, someone from up above or down below calling out to us in warning – ‘You can’t go on like this’”
– Some of Marathon is maybe a touch conservative (small c) for us, a tiny bit musically ‘normal’ for our left-field tastes, there are details though, there are moments lurking there under the surface, it isn’t all as straightforward as it might first seem and there are moments that really are rather beautifully textured and well as voiced.
Ultimately Marathon tells a story of persistence, of not just one life, but many unfolding across space and time spent on this now rather fragile Earth, an album that could feel as fragile as the planet but, when you tune in properly, when you let the album in, it really is rather a rather strong marathon… Bandcamp / Linktree
Previously…
THE ORGAN 