Debut record from a Brighton-based duo doing something oddly nostalgic. In a way that’s possibly not obviously nostalgic.
I don’t know how many readers are familiar with that time in “post-rock” when it was more associated with Tortoise and being quietly cerebral than big instrument rockist gestures, but this is fairly close to that. Similar to that time as well there’s a kind of parity and austerity of titles — the outfit’s called Ensemble 1, the tracks named with simple descriptions (“Guitar, Bass & Drums I and II”).
Influences are listed as the likes of Steve Reich, Battles, Tool — so you can get a flavour there of where we’re at. But I think it’s carrying with it a kind of logic of composition rather than necessarily that of repetition — so probably closer to Reich in that sense — but there’s enough movement and freedom that it’s clearly not in that systems composition vein of the better-known end of minimalism.When I saw them play last it was as a solo act — guitar loops in an improvisatory way, but a lot of detail, taking in a breadth of techniques (hammering, clicks and pops, drifting asymmetrical loops), making it a lot more engaging than just another (bloody) loop-pedal. This record is perhaps not as improvisatory, but it’s certainly got the care and attention to detail and the breadth of ideas.
It’s deceptive, in that you can dip into most tracks at any point to get a similar vibe, but over a whole there’s a constant shifting, pushing the tracks forward — a change of emphasis here, a shifting melody there. It’s repetitious in the sense that ideas are repeated, but not in the sense that it doesn’t quite do the same thing all the time. I don’t want to be this dickhead reviewer (lol) but it’s interesting they mention Glenn Branca but not Rhys Chatham — in my head a lot of this material, particularly the bits that dote on pacific timbral effect, ekes out harmonics from different strokes on a guitar string. Branca, for my money, was never interested in those kind of subtleties (though obviously it’s difficult to call Chatham subtle when he’s composed for ridiculous numbers of guitarists).Long story short, this is pretty exciting stuff — it’s definitely got a lot of hayday post-rock feels for me, but it’s definitely something that’ll sit well with metallers who like to get stoned (though it’s rarely metal-heavy), Late Junction Radio 3 sorts. A welcome kick up the arse for lazy, composition-averse rock bands, in short.
-Kev Nickells-
