...from The Big Takeover, NYC 2000:
"Tired of the same old same old same old (a theme of this
issue), one day this darkly intense disc came through the speakers. Leave it to the English,
Manchester especially, where this duo (with guest drummer) and label are from.
The place still has a knack for unusual atmospheres. Imagine
Patrick Fitzgerald of Kitchens of Distinction singing in his lower range for the last days
of Joy Division (or the first days of New Order without the drum machine). Add a raspy cello
on one song, and guitars that sound like keyboards on other perilous ones like the well-titled
Learning Silence.
The music is circular, hypnotic, and gentle but not nice, like
something out of a David Lynch movie. Stare at the radiant sleeve of the start of a woods
(like The Cure's A Forest sleeve, another minor resemblance to the music), and you're reminded
that the woods, like this CD, still is a labyrinth of hazard, of apprehension, but it's
intriguing too (a central American impression, given the 'wilderness' the early European
settlers encountered).
Not surprising, then, that mainman Geoff Read has a tiger-stripes
beard, which looks fierce instead of utterly ridiculous, or that he refuses to play live,
making sure you have to come into the woods to get to him. Note also that the label maxim
is 'music with heart.' Where have we heard that before? Well they're welcome to share it
with us, with releases like this." |
