Drunter und Drüber without a fixed theme: the Brits’ post-punk-ambient-folk-electro mix is as cryptic as it is captivating.
How many elementary particles, how many time signatures can a rock song actually endure? Squid’s closing chord, composed by trumpeter Laurie Nankivell and slightly cryptically titled “If You Had Seen The Bull’s Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away,” brings together what other bands might glean in ten tracks or five years, if they are looking for happiness in eclecticism at all.
The list of ingredients ranges from an electronic crackle to a fat, overdriven bass, Ollie Judge’s very special whispering and panting vocals, wide walls of keyboards, a really nice trumpet melody and prog rock stuff to a spiritual jazz choir, which they took straight from the last Kamasi Washington album might have copied over.
A free hour on the Jugendforscht class trip to the provinces
According to the band, four different time signatures are involved, and the five-minute track was inspired by a documentary about discrimination and poverty in the USA (“Rat Film”), to which Dan Deacon wrote the music. Anyone looking for the common thread will not find it – it doesn’t have to exist. All eight songs were recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in rural Wiltshire and exploring the countryside and Neolithic stone circles has left its mark on O MONOLITH.
An album that wants to be a total work of art, without the influences condensing into a identifiable theme, it’s more of a free hour on the youth researcher class trip to the provinces. There they let their Sturm und Drang post-punk rest from time to time, then ambient meadows open up and the band practices on quiet folk songs. Or, back in the studio, programming a Fairlight CMI sampler, which Kate Bush had already used to refine “Running Up That Hill”. Yes, there is quite a lot going on (also haywire) in this new rock music.