For Kinbrae‘s second album, the brothers Truscott have chosen to weave an aural tapestry of the River Tay. It serves as a kind of love letter and story as to the impact the river has had on their lives, and their interactions with the surrounding landscape. Newly started label Truant has issued this on lovely 12″ vinyl with dramatic photographs on the inner sleeve. The packaging is wonderful and the contents easily live up to it.
Andy Truscott tends to concentrate on the piano and synthesizer side of things, whereas Mike Truscott is on guitar duties as well as cornet, flugelhorn and tenor horn, and it is this brass element that gives the album its special appeal. Opener “Movement Of Light” is surprisingly vibrant, with its whirring helicopter-like sound and moody drone. The sullen piano gives a crepuscular air to the piece and the sensation of staring across the width of the river at dusk, straining to make out the other side as the last of the remaining light falls, is really well executed.
“Meander”, meanwhile, is a horn duet that drifts slowly out of the speakers, catching the river at slack tide, making its way lazily out towards the sea. It isn’t all drifting torpor though, as beats are introduced to bring dynamism into play. Not too much, but just enough, an easy pace that collects momentum, noise and chatter, scurrying onwards. “The Bridge At Night” is the antithesis, with quiet, shadowy drones, soothing bass and a weary horn that feels as though it is lulling you to sleep. A fine fuzz of feedback scattered across the water prevents that from happening and that feeling of watching a river at night on your way back from some late evening somewhere, allowing the dark to swallow you up and the gentle lapping to soothe away the weariness, is captured perfectly. The twins manage to paint a picture of a welcoming river, but one that still has its secrets. “Confluence” feels further upstream, away from the eyes of humanity and more in the domain of the wild, and “Arrival Of Winter” is darker and deeper, maintaining a mystery that is necessary.The Tay is the longest river in Scotland and moves through many different landscapes before emerging into the sea. The album ends with “Tributaries”, which has slowed the pace to a crawl, the sound gently eked out as we move further and further upstream to where there is nothing but a series of trickles, merging with the clashing drumbeat that denotes nature’s overwhelming presence in the landscape. The use of piano as texture and the lulling drones give the impression of very different sources making up the river as a whole, once it becomes the mature and vast body further downstream.
The Truscott brothers have made a really nice job of capturing the different essences and characters that make up such an extraordinary watercourse on Landforms, and it is worth diving in to join them in the adventure.-Mr Olivetti-
