This British band ventures out to Godspeedyoublackemperor! lands of weird wandering. They are also capable of locking into a groove and telling a story. "The Invisible Man" moves with a jazz-influenced cadence as a saxophone tempers the ambiance and sets the mood. The vocals range from a spoken word that is almost rapped to moaning croons. There is no denying this is both interesting an pretty original when it comes to the sounds they allow to collide here. There is a tension here that is not quite dark enough for me to consider it post-punk, but these guys are not shoe-gaze, either so post-jazz might be a thing?
They pick up the pace on "Zeitgeist" which heads in an almost more of a Rage Against the Machine direction, but with none of the proto-nu metal guitars, In their place is a great deal of aggressive jazz chaos. The almost rapped vocals continue their flow on "One Hand Behind the Devil", there is a taunt syncopation , that gives this more of a punch. I can hear where they might admire Idles, but there is a great deal of other sounds being added to the mix giving them their own sound. The melody the sax lays down in the middle of this song is nice.
The last song is more of an all-out jazz jam. It is glazed over with post-rock ambiance, to create a spacious, but surreal swathe of sound. Was not expecting them to end with an instrumental, but it works. These guys are onto something, would like to hear where they go from here on a full length, everything is very cohesive, and while they cover a great deal of musical ground it is never jarring and always smooth sailing even on the higher energy in your face moments.
pst362
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