The Lowland Hundred - The Lowland Hundred (2014)

Its the sort of thing I should like. The press release mentions Talk Talk, Blue Nile and Disco Inferno so you may think job done. But not quite. This mostly reminds me of David Sylvian’s recent work on ‘Manofon’ or Scott Walker’s late period dissolve into the abstract. Similarly constructed, these songs take an age to get going and when they do they are sprinkled with Paul Newland’s vocals which have a love it or hate it quality largely to do with their liberal use of vibrato. Its one of the very few albums I’ve seen recently which have no songtitles whatsoever, making it hard to connect with and also meaning I’ll have to describe the track I’m listening to now as 'Track 3' as it veers from pillowy ambience to Talk Talk style clanging guitars. Although I’m not getting on with the vocals that well, some people might and think they are the key to the record, as the track comes together some piano notes are injected which occasionally swell up to reveal quick shards of melody.

The closing track 4 is the most linear of the pieces, heading towards territories mapped by These New Puritans on their wonderful ‘Field of Reeds’ opus, the vocals are joined by ghostly sounds which fade and return, billowing in and out of the mix in an extremely effective manner. It all culminates in a section which sounds like what might have happened had Its Immaterial continued their path to Talk Talk like abstraction.