School of Language - Old Fears (2014)

Old Fears. It's a pop record. A place of clipped falsetto, melancholic funk, iridescent electro, shimmering post-punk, futurist prog. At times it is both liminal and minimal, at others emotive and external. Ambiguous and ambient. Tantalising and tempered. Modern. Unique. And funny too. ''I wrote a lot of notes and they seemed to distinctly split into things to do with love and things to do with fear,'' says David Brewis. ''A lot of it has ended up with me looking back at when I was 19, 20 - my formative years. So though I wouldn't want to call it a concept album it's definitely themed.''Old Fears. Here each song has been honed and polished into something pure, like a vast block of marble chiselled down into a perfectly tiny delicate egg of Fabergé-esque perfection.

Recorded throughout 2013 in Field Music's studio on the banks of the River Wear in Sunderland, synth flourishes sit alongside the staccato jarring guitars of 'A Smile Cracks' and the metronomic rhythms of 'Dress Up'.

Old Fears. A haunted collection that occupies a strange, hazy hinterland of permanent gloaming. One where snatched melodies pass each one another like cars gliding by at night on their way back to the silent suburbs. These are polished pieces composed without contrivance.
Old Fears. An album that is neither retrogressive or futurist, but simply anchored in the moment.