Labels: 54 40 Or Fight! Records
Review by: Tom Hughes
Hoover Hoover Hoover. Ex-Hoover. Typo geeks might even recognise the same handwritten script for the titles as on the ‘Lurid Transversal’ sleeve… can’t quite believe I noticed that but let’s press on anyway. Also then (inevitably) ex-June of 44. And Regulator Watts. And Crownhate Ruin. Etc etc. A not-unplowed furrow then, but with these players it feels more like messing around within a style that comes naturally and which they’ve genuinely got licked, rather than just plain repeating themselves. It’s cleaner, quieter, more airy, echoey, jazzy and squally this time, and it really suits. The fucking trumpet really makes it, sparingly used but damn well-pitched. So it’s Chicago-brand post rock but meaner, heavier, moodier, better. Stabbing axe noises from the upper end, that familiar pendulous, booming bass and nervy, uneasy, footsteps-following-you rhythm fear. There are lulls; at worst I found myself moved unhappily to recall some particularly tedious Tortoise live experiences, for shame – indisciplined repetition and jammy meandering. But that’s on the whole an abberation within a really pretty compelling and absorbing set of songs that more than stands up to these folks’ earlier projects.