This
is the third album from Mole Harness, following the acclaimed ‘a
present from the future’. Whilst the latter was painstakingly
crafted and conceived as a whole, the writing process of this follow-up
was much quicker, freer and more spontaneous, leading to a more
varied work.
‘a
present…’ was constructed entirely from guitar sounds,
and whereas all the melodic elements of ‘…pathway’
are still made from guitars, the processed tones are more varied
in their timbre, and are also augmented by the return of more rhythmic
and purely textural elements. This shift is illustrated by ‘fallout
census man’, with its cut-up CD skips and radio static, as
well as ‘a feast for regret’ with its shuffling guitar-body
percussion and skittering drum machine hi-hats.
‘foothills
of the informant’ and ‘fallout census man’ also
show Brewster’s guitar playing at its most fluid and expressive
so far. Freed from layered structures, the characteristics of a
single guitar are now allowed to become the focus of a piece.
An increasingly
minimalist approach defines much of the album. ‘the sunless
pool and home’ is based around a group of melodic sequences
drifting apart from each other, recombining from one chord progression
into another. The structure of ‘a feast for regret’
was initially inspired by playing two completely different tracks
over the top of each other at random. The original track develops
normally for five minutes, before another one enters and they struggle
for dominance, switching priority at a crucial moment. Once this
first section ends, elements of both tracks then gradually re-emerge,
this time uniting in a 15 minute sequence of overlapping melodic
themes, evolving phrase cycles and hypnotic drones.
In mid 2006 Brewster moved to Malmö in Sweden, so ‘out
of the walled pathway’ was the last Mole Harness album to
be written entirely in Bristol, UK, the city where he first started
making music five years ago.
The CD
comes in a black card sleeve, with cover photograph by Cecilia Ek.
Limited
to 150 copies, sold out.
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