After One Listen

Big Blood & Thunder Crutch - Big Blood & Thunder Crutch (2018, Don’t Trust The Ruin)

A1L        (13/12/2018)

Not what I was expecting having heard a few Big Blood releases before this (I’m unfamiliar with the work of Thunder Crutch). There’s definitely traces of Big Blood in there and I can hear it from time to time, but wherever the blend of these two begins and ends is new to me.

The looseness of the album’s tracklisting reminds me of Broadcast/Focus Group in their Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age album, where you sort of drift through each track a bit like a guided fever dream. The divisions are a little stronger on this one, but it hardly feels these recordings were made to be listened to in any other context. Good first impression.

A2L         (14/12/2018)

Delving back into it again still feels unlike what I expected. Props to this lot for striking a healthy balance between pop music and full blown experimental tinkering/improvisation. That’s probably what gives it the looseness I was talking about earlier. Sure there’s some stylistic elements similar to Broadcast/The Focus Group - the squelching bleeps and bloops of a synth and dizzying rhythms - but above all the intent here is what gives me the aforementioned impression.

Sidenote, Underneath He Is A Girl comes in so satisfyingly. Oof.

I guess that’s what I mean when I think about the balance between experimental and pop. I mean, even the pop moments are experimental, but there’s hardly any seams in the transition. It isn’t like “oh let’s put a feedback loop for nothing else other than to set up this track” - both the experimentation and the standard composition are of equal importance to and beside each other.

There’s even a The Residents-type air to some of these tracks (like on Make Way and Sweaty Pants). I wonder if that’s by the influence of Thunder Crutch?

The songs I come away from the album loving the most are the few tracks that could stand alone, which doesn’t seem fair to its scope though could help to dive in as an outsider - tracks like Underneath He Is A Girl, Sing For What It’s Worth, State Of Science... My housemate pointed out some of these even have a PJ Harvey edge to them. Think Let England Shake. Makes sense.

Beak> - >>> (2018, Invada)

A1L         (12/12/2018)    

A friend and I were discussing this after my first listen: >>> does very similar to each other Beak> release. But while he felt a little bored over further listens, I appreciate that maybe they’re developing a certain ethic or idea over a time. I get what my friend is saying, but didn’t Neu do just the same? Maybe, maybe not.

It’s interesting to think about. Broader styles like Techno do it. You sit with a pretty niche musical element and you boil it and boil it and let it unravel, and hope that the next progression is a purer, more distilled form. Am I talking out my ass already? I enjoyed this, despite some very short-lived dragging in the longer (6+mins) moments. It’s a good record.

A2L         (14/12/2018)

I think I must’ve missed out on The Brazilian the first time, because I definitely don’t remember it. It’s an odd kind of Prog voyage for a band with stylings like this - I don’t often hear British Prog and Kraut crossover very often, or maybe I’m just not listening.

Harvester glimmers like Faust’s Jennifer, and comes in right at the right time following on the heels of Birthday Suit. There are few things I love more than quiet tension and cool release. It’s also a fairly easy-going song so soon in the album for a band like Beak>.

I’m wondering how tracks like Alle Sauvage and King Of The Castle are going to feel over future listens, they’re enjoyable but not to the extent I want to hear them again on their own. If it weren’t for Teisco and RSI coming in after each I’d feel like they were average points, but as a progression it works.