Squid - "Cowards" (2025)

 

Squid are back with their 3rd LP, Cowards. Following on from their excellent 2023 record, O Monolith, Cowards delves deeper into the band's more experimental and post-rock tendencies. The whole album revolves around the central theme of evil, and while Olly Judge's lyrics and vocal approach regularly dipped into manic and unhinged territory on their past material, the themes and narratives of these songs are way more upfront and explicit.

The opening cut Crispy Skin, for example, is quite obviously from the perspective of a cannibal who is having a moral crisis over their actions, flitting between questioning their decisions and a sort of psychosis where their brain is trying to force them to forget that they actually have done that. Musically, it feels like a bridge between the more wiry post-punk grooves of the debut (Bright Green Field) and the linear Krautrockian song progressions from O Monolith. Blood on the Boulders is this creeping post-rock slow burn and is much more stark and simple than anything Squid usually creates. The track has a hot desert-ish atmosphere that compliments the cultish lyrics detailing a murder under the California sun and the obsessiveness of true crime fanatics wanting to know every last detail. The track slowly unravels from this slow and plodding pace into a typical noisy Squid climax, with the contrast really paying off. Fieldworks II similarly has the atmosphere of a slasher flick, referencing broken bones and wiping blood from ones face against a backdrop of chiming guitars and cinematic strings. The closing line "I don't look in the lake." is particularly chilling.

The other tracks in the first leg of the record aren't quite as interesting, which leaves it feeling a little lopsided. Building 650 is essentially a musical retelling of the Japanese crime novel In the Miso Soup, which is about a serial killer, with none of the deeper commentary or weirdness that other moments on the record have. The track is also musically the most bog-standard Squid. It's not bad (there are definitely songs off BGF that are weaker), but it lacks the unique bells and whistles that most Squid songs have. Fieldworks I acts more as an interlude at the mid-point of the record than as a lead into Fieldworks II but also doesn't really stand on its own, so does just feel a bit odd and unfinished.

The second half of the record is where it really gets into its groove, starting with Cro-Magnon Man. Similarly to Building 650, it's stylistically quite classic Squid, but the weird as hell lyrics about the odd-ball, vintage horror film-esque titular character and frenetic keyboards really draw me in. The title track is a slow jazzy post-rock piece that reminds me of a cross between Kid A era Radiohead and the quieter moments on Black Country, New Road's debut. Showtime! really is the albums piece de resistance, going through multiple phases - starting as a erratic, scratchy post-punk track before moving into an expansive space rock section that then settles into a driving krautrock finale. The closer, Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence) is drawn out and patient, building up the tension through its claustrophobic first half which is then let out in the spacious and ascending second half.

Cowards is another good (and sometimes great) album from Squid. It's not quite as consistent as O Monolith and I think I prefer the quite alien and otherworldly atmosphere of that record to the more gritty and down to earth approach taken to the songwriting here. It's still very inventive and engaging and well worth checking out if you like this kind of neurotic experimental rock.

Top Tracks: Crispy Skin, Blood on the Boulders, Fieldworks II, Cro-Magnon Man, Showtime!, Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence)

7/10

Squid - "O Monolith" (2023)

With life becoming busier and busier post-pandemic and post-uni, the blog has become more and more of me just trying to keep up with new releases from artists I already follow, and less about new discoveries. I do want to change that in 2024, and get back to going through that 100 albums poster and also the David Bowie chronology I started doing in 2020 - but one record from 2023 that I really do want to cover is this, Squid's second album, O Monolith. Squid broke through in 2021 with their debut record, Bright Green Field - an experimental post-punk record which drew comparisons to black midi and Black Country, New Road and kind of made them the third part of the triarchy of the then still emerging post-Brexit / experimental post-punk scene. I didn't get around to talking about it here, but it was a good record with some great tracks, although a little bloated and not quite at the same level as the comparisons to bm and BC, NR would suggest.

O Monolith takes everything that worked about the debut and pumps it up to a new level; its' tighter, less derivative, more inventive and experimental, and certainly more wild. The band incorporate a more hypnotic and krautrock-ian sense of rhythm that draws you into this otherworldly place in which the album sits. There is something unhuman and unhinged about it, which to compare the band to their contemporaries once again, reminds me of black midi's debut, Schlagenheim. While that album achieves this feeling through pure shock value, O Monolith gains it through the atmosphere and tension it builds. At a tight 8 tracks and a sharp 42 minutes, it reminds me of some of the post-punk classics from the vinyl age where every track was vital and there was no superfluous fluff.

Swing (In A Dream) opens up the record with twinkling synths and repetitive chiming rhythm guitar, which sets you straight up to fall into this groovy but sinister record. Ollie Judge's vocals command you to "Live inside the frame, Forget everything, Swing inside a dream" like some evil hypnotist. The track breaks down into a flamenco style sax solo towards the second half before the rest of the instruments come crashing back in with a super thick and meaty bass guitar added to the mix. It's disorientating, chaotic, and disarming. This is followed up by Devil's Den, which starts off much more low-key. The track begins as a quiet swaying tune built around delicate flutes, but in the second half it is flipped on it's head, Ollie starts screaming, the discordant guitars come crashing in and the whole track descends into complete chaos.

Siphon Song really slows it down, bringing OK Computer style robotic vocals set against a slow building post-rock-y rhythm section. The track linearly builds to something louder and more dramatic, but nothing as chaotic and mental as the first couple of songs on the record. It really gives off that late 90s early 2000s art rock vibe. Stick this on a Radiohead or an early Elbow album and I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Undergrowth returns to the off-kilter grooviness of Swing (In A Dream), complete with a bigger part from the horn section. The horns provide the pulsating beat to the song as Judge sings "I'd rather melt, melt, melt, away". The whole track feels creepy and deranged.

The Blades kicks off the second half and is perhaps my favourite track on the record (and maybe my favourite Squid track overall). The song is built of this descending, spiralling guitar rhythm, and spiky accentuating lead guitar parts. The song is so dynamic, rising up and then slowing down, and then rising back up again. The sinister paranoia of the song is also very much to my taste, as the song slowly morphs from the half way point, becoming more and more tense as Ollie's vocals become more and more insane. The horns sound more and more like sirens and the rhythm section becomes am overwhelming wall of sound, before it all just cuts back to a restrained outro featuring just a chiming guitar and quiet, restrain vocals.

After the madness of The Blades, After The Flash is at a much more plodding march-like pace. But it is equally as sinister, feeling like a march of the undead or some other kind of possessed figure. Like Siphon Song its a much needed breather in the pace of the record. The song progresses in its second half from something sinister to something more heavenly, as the riff ascends upwards - as if the protagonist of the album is attempting to escape whatever trance they are in. This clearly ultimately fails, as the deranged horn section comes slowly back in and descends back down towards the very end of the song, transitioning into Green Light, which is the most has the most intensely repetitive and aggressive groove of the album thus far.

The album closes out with If You Had Seen The Bull's Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away (what a title I know...). The song was written by the band's guitarist Anton Pearson, and while I do enjoy it to an extent, it does feel a little disconnected from the rest of the record. It's nowhere near as wild as the rest of the album and feels a little out of place because of it. The last minute of the song does build to an intense climax but as a whole the song would've fit much better on Bright Green Field than here.

O Monolith is a great development for Squid and really sets them up as something special, not just another band in the scene. It's intense and atmospheric, and also challenging and chaotic. For me, it has pushed them past black midi as scene leaders (alongside Black Country, New Road), as while bm are still just trying to shock you 3 albums in, Squid are trying to build something greater and more atmospheric (not to knock black midi, I still think Cavalcade is great). If your a fan of the scene, please check it out.

Top Tracks : Swing (In A Dream), Devil's Den, Siphon Song, Undergrowth, The Blades

8/10

black midi - "Hellfire" (2022)

Following straight on from last years Cavalcade, black midi are back with their 3rd record, Hellfire. The band claimed that 'if Cavalcade was a drama, Hellfire is an action movie', and that certainly is the case with all of the elements that made up that record returning but with supercharged intensity and ferocity. The complicated, technical grooves that build the base of their sound are here, alongside the fusions of classical and jazz instrumentation that Cavalcade brought along - but is all brought forward in a much more immediate and forceful way. The record is two tracks longer than Cavalcade yet is nearly four minutes shorter, so it doesn't have time to ebb and flow in the same way as that album. It's a breakneck rollercoaster to the finish. 

The most obvious change to create this sense of immediacy is the approach to lyrics and themes. This is the first time a bm record has presented its ideas so blatantly, with the stories these tracks tell actually intelligible - as opposed to the obtuse doom propheteering of Cavalcade and the general psychotic ramblings of Schlagenheim. The titular intro track spells out all that Hellfire is, being the grim reality of mortality and death, the graphic brutality of war and the ideas of sin and damnation that try to make sense of all the madness. 

The more upfront lyrics of the album combined with the sprint to the finish pace make it probably the most accessible bm record of the three, with the tracks on the first half of the record just rolling into each other with no room to let up. Following on from the intro track, Sugar/Tzu opens with a theatrical sporting announcement before exploding straight into pummelling arpeggios and bombastic horns - reinforcing the themes of the trivialisation of war through viewing it as some kind of game where personal glory can be gained. The end of the song crashes straight into Eat Men Eat, a less brutal but just as tense track sung by bassist Cam Picton. The sinister flamenco groove of the song perfectly matches the creepy and graphic tale of mutiny and food poisoning as a mine captain tries to poison his workers to produce stomach acid to be the secret ingredient in has wine production. It's graphic and weird and reminds me of those slightly traumatising kids stories you'd see on CBBC in the 2000's (obscure reference, I know).

This then bombards straight into Welcome To Hell, the lead single and anchor for the albums themes. Geordie Greep plays the role of a WW1 recruitment / training officer, luring in the character of Tristan Bongo to sign up with tales of glory and adventure, before revealing his true intentions about using him purely as a tool to kill others in the 'game of war' and descending into abuse and eventually discharging him for not withstanding the trauma and developing PTSD. Musically it is perhaps the most refined of the bm cacophonous walls of sound / pummel your face off type tracks which matches the vocal delivery from Greep perfectly. Still is the first time the album lets up, and after the intensity of instrumentation and lyrics of the first four tracks it is a necessary breather. Lyrically it is the most lightweight on the record, being a mere breakup song - as opposed to the traumatising horrors of humanity thus far. It has a country twang to it and there's a particular part towards the end where it progresses into a kind of barn dance breakdown that I really like and wish lasted longer than a couple pf bars. As much as I like Still, it does feel at odds with what comes before and after it in the record. Where every other song is about the traumatic depths of humanity, Still is just a kind of sad but generally calm and unemotional breakup tune.

Half Time brings back the sporting themes from Sugar/Tzu and signals the transition to the back half of the record, which unfortunately doesn't grip me like the first half. The Race Is About To Begin picks up the story of Tristan Bongo after Welcome To Hell, where he descends into a gambling addiction betting on horses. The song has musical similarities and call backs to that track, which in my opinion means it struggles to set itself apart in its first phase. As the track progressive, Greep's vocals descend into this staccato semi-rapped / semi spoken word delivery reminiscent of a horse racing commentator; and while it does distinguish it from Welcome To Hell, it feels a little gimmicky and the track as a whole goes on way to long. On every listen for me, Dangerous Liaisons and The Defence slide into background, they're just fairly unremarkable compared to the front end of the record and black midi in general. They follow the same themes as the rest of the record, with more of a religious slant dealing in temptation and sin and hypocrisy. Perhaps it's just the sheer bombardment of words and ideas of the record up to this point that I am just desensitised to the themes by this point.

27 Questions Closes out the record and one again brings back some of the lost intensity with thunderous pianos and crashing percussion, sounding like some kind of march towards inevitable death. Which is what the song is about as the protagonist escapes awful weather out in town one night in a free admission show by the character Freddie Frost, a washed up actor making his last play about his life's achievements as he is on deaths door. The whole first half feels sinister and foreboding as the play tries to dress up Freddie Frost as a grand and accomplished figure, before the second half completely unravels it. It's sung from the perspective of Freddie, and becomes the play he has written, which he finishes off by listing off his 27 questions about 'life the universe and everything', completely demolishing the fake grandeur of the performance, declaring it pointless and farcical in the face of death, becoming completely self-deprecating before he drops dead on stage before he could even finish his 27 questions. I am really mixed on the track, as I get what it's trying to do, and I really love the musicality of the first half. But the flip to Freddie's perspective both musically pushes the theatricality of the album just a little over the edge into a territory I can't really take seriously, and also feels like the record descends into that kind of sixth form 'nihilism = clever' territory.

I guess that's my biggest problem with the record when compared to Cavalcade. As the lyrics and themes are more prominent this time around, its more easy to see that when you strip back the technical musicianship and wordy, meaty lyrics, its just plain nihilism. And while there's a place for it in music, dressing it up as something more profound than it actually is does rub me the wrong way a little. It gives off that 'look I'm more clever than you' vibe. Cavalcade was more patient, and more mysterious and wonderous, and more consistent. That being said, I very much enjoy the first few tracks here, musically and lyrically; and on the whole I'd take it over the somewhat shock value allure of Schlagenheim.

7/10

Top Tracks: Hellfire, Sugar/Tzu, Eat Men Eat, Welcome To Hell, Still

black midi - "Cavalcade" (2021)

 

black midi burst onto the scene in 2019 with Schlagenheim, a mesmerising collision of post-punk, noise rock and experimental rock that was attention grabbing if a little too over the top and headache inducing. They have returned with their sophomore record, Cavalcade, which while retaining the core of the band's identity also takes some drastic sonic changes which I personally think have really paid off.

Gone are most of the harshest post-hardcore and noise rock tendancies, instead the band opt to incorporate orchestral and jazz instrumentation to fill out the cacophonous walls of sound that is characteristic of their style. What results is a record that can be equally as loud as Schlagenheim, but nowhere near as draining due to the sheer colour and verity of not just tracks, but individual sections of tracks also. The dynamics of these songs also feel far more loose and natural than on the debut, swelling into climaxes and ebbing back into spaces to catch your breath, as opposed to the whiplash nature of the first record.

Furthermore, Cavalcade feels like a tighter, more structured album. The sequencing gives each of the 8 tracks a sense of place and purpose. The first half matches the louder, more intense moments with ones that let you catch your breath; and the second half progresses from the gentle and serene post-rock of Diamond Stuff, through the progressively louder Dethroned into Hogwash and Balderdash which is as loud and colourful as the first few tracks. All of this leads into the final track, Ascending Forth, which is a grand theatrical finish for the record. It has a more intentional structure and flow the Schlagenheim which only adds to it's listenability.

The record opens with John L, which is probably the most brash and in your face song on the record. It feels very much like a mission statement, as if black midi are announcing their new sound. It comes crashing in with a complex, jarring rhythm and syncopated strings that produce so much tension. It then judders and rolls into the first section of vocals on the record; which Geordie Greep has taken a different approach than on the first album. While still bizarre and detached, they're not quite as intensely insane as the first record, which I think I prefer. He sounds more like some kind of profit of the apocalypse rather than a madman on here. The track then switches between this initial rhythmic section and a couple of quieter jazz and post-rock inspired sections that constantly mixes things up. The following track, Marlene Dietrich, couldn't be further from this. It's a loose and classical inspired art rock tune that's fairly straightforward in the grand scheme of the album.

Chondromalacia Patella is returns to the complex grooves of John L, but instead of throwing it all in our faces at once, it slowly builds and builds to a complete cacophony of sound and noise that somewhat comically ends in the sound of a whistling bomb. The slow linear build of the song allows for time to appreciate all of its elements and makes it probably my favourite of the entire record. Slow doubles down on the hypnotic grooves and jazzier elements, being subtler and more reserved than the tracks that come before it while still being quite frantic and manic.

The multi song build from Diamond Stuff through Hogwash and Balderdash is really great sequencing in my opinion that reinforces each of the tracks qualities. Diamond Stuff is beautiful and meditative while still being quite eerie and off-putting, and is a perfect moment to reset in the middle of the album after the manic first half. It slowly gains more traction as it progresses, blossoming into this really ethereal groove that sounds like some sort of awakening for the character of the track. This is quickly shifted up a gear by Dethroned, the most straightfoward post-punk the record gets. It grows noisier and messier as it goes and is the closest thing to Schlagenheim on the album. It works as a breath of fresh air from the more technical, proggier stuff that makes up everything else here. The chaotic and complex rhythms return with Hogwash and Balderdash, looping it back round to the start of the record before the big finale. 

Ascending Forth works as a big theatrical closer, but I haven't really been able to connect with it. I think it's due to the track coming across like a bit of an in joke within the scene, much like some of the moments on the Black Country, New Road record I reviewed earlier this year. Greep repeatedly sings "everybody loves ascending fourths", taking the piss out of the common music trope while also conveying the idea of some sort of heavenly ascension with the synonym in the title. Unfortunately it doesn't really land for me.

Aside from a couple of moments, this record builds on Schlagenheim in every way. It's better constructed, impressively technical and feels like it has more heart to it, being less reliant on attention grabbing gimmicks. The collision of Jazz and Classical with post-punk and progressive rock is really impressive. However I do feel that black midi are still a band that I admire rather than love, and for a lot of people I know the lack of any relatability will be a huge turn off. But for anyone already onboard, Cavalcade shows the band growing into something really quite special.

Top Tracks: John L, Chondromalacia Patella, Slow, Diamond Stuff, Dethroned, Hogwash and Balderdash

8/10

Black Country, New Road - "For the first time" (2021)

 

Hailing from the same scene that launched black midi into the music-nerd sphere, Black Country, New Road have been gaining a lot of hype for their debut record For the first time. I put it on for the first time a few weeks ago and I am totally on board with the praise the album has been getting. Much like black midi, the group is broadly categorised as experimental post-punk but that label doesn't really express the shear amount of genres the band seamlessly encompasses into each of the 6 tracks here. Elements of post-rock and progressive rock are effortlessly woven with jazz and jazz-rock, and the group even heavily incorporates klezmer (a type of Eastern European Jewish folk music) into the first and last tracks. It is so dense with each new moment brimming with new ideas and approaches.

At 40 minutes and only 6 tracks, each track is long and given time and space to grow and permutate into completely different forms. Everything also sounds so clear, it's not experimental in it's production techniques, allowing for the tightness of the compositions and performances to really shine. The record feels very segmented, with each song feeling very separate and compartmentalised from each other; but because the band commits to this it works. It feels like a series of 6 vignettes than one feature film. However, they all follow similar themes and concepts with frontman Isaac Wood's eclectic lyrics detailing stories about characters that are seemingly experiencing complete mental dysfunction and breakdowns. These first person perspective tracks go into such excruciating detail about minute and mundane things that it almost comes across as comic at some points. And I believe that it's intentional, these characters are losing their minds, it is supposed to sound hysterical.

The record opens with the introductory Instrumental. This track starts with a simple math rock groove before being quickly smothered by the Klezmer instrumentation of woodwind and trumpets. The track builds and builds to this super kinetic climax and breakdown. The descending melodies just make you want to move and gets the adrenaline pumping hard. Athens, France couldn't be more different. Starting of as a post-punk song, the track then shifts to film noir reminiscent jazz with a recurring James Bond-esque swell, before settling out into a serene chiming guitar led outro. It's dynamic but also quite gentle, which is in contrast Isaac's disturbed lyrics which seem to reference the demise of the group's predecessor, Nervous Condition, which disbanded due to sexual harassment claims against that group's lead singer. It comes across as almost a severe sense of shame that the band has inherited NC's members (bar the vocalist), musical style and potentially legacy. It's a complex emotion and masked under layers of subversion and diverting lines referencing speakers and Phoebe Bridgers.

The next two tracks are the most deranged on the record and the most reminiscent of their scene contemporaries, black midi. Science Fair unravels as this song that is about the protagonist's obsession with a woman that he meets in multiple situations, the titular science fair and then the Cirque du Soleil, or at least he thinks he meets her, he's that obsessed. It implies that maybe he's attacked her (or who he thinks is her) by the end of the song and runs off into the distance, but the details are murky and vague like some sort of fever dream. Musically, this is paired with a noisy and discordant combination of distorted guitars and wild horns and sax. Sunglasses, similarly tells the story of a 20-something that feels so lost and worthless that he's verging on a breakdown. Until he puts on a pair of sunglasses, in an effort to hide his vulnerability from the world. However this clearly isn't working as Isaac screams "I'm more than adequate, leave your Sertraline in the cabinet", as if he's trying to convince himself that he's okay and doesn't need the antidepressants that have been proscribed to him.

The only drawbacks the album has is that is so lyrically intense and somewhat pretentious that not every moment or lyric lands for me. The album feels like it's stuffed full of in-jokes and winks and nods to people involved with the scene, and when the band tries to go for something more relatable and straight up on Track X, it doesn't come across like they really are. The track just feels like it has dialled back on the eccentricity and insanity. However the record does end on a strong point, bringing back the Klezmer and combining it more with post-punk and experimental rock instrumentation and structures.

For the first time is certainly not a record for everyone, it's obnoxious and fairly pretentious, but it is so well composed and performed with really unique song structures and topics that never gets old. It has so many twists and turns and is nothing but exhilarating.

Top Tracks: Instrumental, Athens, France, Science Fair, Sunglasses, Opus

8/10

black midi - "Schlagenheim" (2019)

I've been intending to talk about black midi's debut record, Schlagenheim, since last year. However, it's the kind of record that I have to be in a very specific mood for, as it is a very loud, erratic and abrasive album. When I am in the right mood for it, I have a really enjoyable time - but that isn't all that often. Schlagenheim mixes hypnotic math rock grooves with post-hardcore and noise rock instrumentation so loud and abrasive it feels like your ears are about explode; alongside experimental song structures with multiple passages and a positively deranged vocal delivery from frontman Geordie Greep.

The first thing which greets you in the opening track, 953, is a super noisy thrashing on all the instruments before the song settles into a very minimal and restrained section with the first bit of vocals on the album. Greep sounds like some sort of weird, twisted preacher talking about condemnation and sins. The loud thrashing then return momentarily before the second verse follows the first in a more restrained style. The track closes out with an even more manic instrumental section featuring erratic piano notes. The following track, Speedway, couldn't be more different. It features this really tight math rock groove that sounds really clean and hypnotic, with vocals from bassist Cameron Picton rambling about houses and building codes. It makes the track sound sort of Talking Heads-y to an extent.

This erratic nature is carried throughout the entire album, with the short, linear, pummelling nature of Reggae and Near DT, MI followed by the 8-minute multi-section Western. The gentle parts of this song are definitely the most serene the album gets, and the louder sections sound oddly triumphant. I think this is due to Greep's extremely eccentric delivery combined with the electronic swells in the background. The back half of the track gains some grit as the groove speeds up and up, before blindsiding you with a sudden switch back to the gentle first part of the song.

I do find that the album does get a bit much in the second half, with Greep's vocals becoming consistently more deranged and possessed, and the harsh, distorted loudness more persistent. The vocals on bmbmbm (yes that is the title of the track...) are something that has really stuck with me because of how insane (and frankly pretty offputting) they are. Greep repeats the line "she moves with a purpose" over and over like some sort of lunatic stalker over an incredibly tense and harsh repeated bassline. The screams and laughs at the back of the mix only add to the insanity of the track.

The closer, Ducter, is one of the most restrained and sane tracks on the album, and its one of my favourites. The track is built off this chiming, repeated guitar pattern and a rising and falling bass. Greep's vocals are a step down from the relentless insanity and are pretty intelligible. The track slowly builds up to its climax, with each element introduced one at a time; with the track never being overcome by the noise. Greep sing's "You will not break me" with the same sort of eccentric triumphance as he does on Western.

This album is certainly not for everyone, and I have to be in the right mood to enjoy it. But there is a sense of virtuosity and daringness to just how unique it is that I really respect. However I think it is just too standoff-ish and challenging for me to ever really love. To be honest, a lot of my appreciation for individual tracks on the record has been through them coming up on shuffle, where I can move onto something else afterwards so the relentless noise doesn't drain me.

Top Tracks: 953, Speedway, Reggae, Western, Ducter

7/10

Pink Floyd - "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967)

There are so many classic artists which I really like their greatest hits but have never explored any of their discography beyond that: David Bowie, Depeche Mode, basically every britpop band. Pink Floyd are one such act, so I've finally started with their debut album. This album is unique in the groups discography, as it is the only one to feature founding front-man Syd Barrett on vocals (he contributed some guitar to the bands follow-up), as his declining mental state due to LSD use caused him to leave the band in 1968. At this point in the band's career, they were making pretty revolutionary psychedelic and experimental rock, and it shows. This album is absolutely nuts, almost too nuts! It's exiting to no end, but rather messy and scattershot in my opinion.

The album opens with Astronomy Domine, a spacey, psychedelic track with space-age beeps and tense guitar melodies which rise and fall. This is followed by Lucifer Sam, at track from what I can gather is about a cat. This track is much faster and has this cool spy film-esque guitar. These tracks are miles apart, sonically and thematically, and the album continues like this. Exploring one sound for a single track then dropping it for something entirely new.

Matilda Mother is dark and moody, like some weird, psychedelic folk tune, but then snaps into some expressive guitar solos that come out of nowhere. Pow R. Toc. H opens with odd percussion a the band making strange noises for 30 seconds but then settles into this groovy, piano-led tune. This is before the weirdness comes back for the middle portion of the song which builds into this guitar led outro. There are no lyrics in this song and it really builds this strange, alien atmosphere. The closer, Bike, is perhaps the silliest song here, with lyrics referencing lending someone a bike and having a mouse friend called Gerald. It is just so amusing and endearing with over the top instrumentation.

The centrepiece of the record is the almost 10 minute Interstellar Overdrive; a proggy, multi-phase song which opens on this heavy, bluesy riff before moving on into a noisy, psychodelic section. The track gets more intense as instruments are added in, and then strips back to this creepy section with dissonant sounding plucked guitars. After this follows a section of ambient instrumental swells which then finally releases the tension, returning to the guitar riff which opened the track.

This album is all over the place, and none of the tracks flow together in any cohesive way; yet it is so off the wall that it remains entertaining. The lack of any overarching idea, or theme does make it less enjoyable to sit down and listen to in one go, but the best tracks in isolation are weird and wacky and captivating.

Top Tracks: Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Pow R. Toc. H, Interstellar Overdrive, Bike

7/10