Whistler - Telltale Sauce (2022) Hi-Res

Putting his days as a member of EMF behind him, Ian Dench -- armed with only his acoustic guitar -- began his collaboration with vocalist Kerry Shaw back in 1996 under the name Whistler. After recruiting violinist James Topham, who also played with Brian Eno, Whistler gigged around England as a three piece before releasing their 1998 single "Rare American Shoes." With their talent of combining Kerry's crisp, but soothing voice that leads on the sensible combination of drowning violins and rhythmic guitars, their second single "If I Give You a Smile" was released that same year and caught on to the acclaim of NME and Melody Maker. Their self-titled full length was released on Wiiija the following year. Whistler returned in early 2001 with Faith In The Morning.

The second full-length by Whistler is a shimmering charge of sound, a spell so loud and ambitious it wants to be heard through speakers the size of a door. Notes boom and sway with a sparkling anti-gravity, lifting you into the air, lowering you onto soft fields. In the words of Whistler's vocalist/guitarist Louis Scherfig, "Our songs musically are quite driven by an idea of beauty." This beauty is paired with a tenacious commitment, each of the nine songs carrying it's own sturdy, balanced grace. It is easy to picture the four members walking circles around each song, shoving here and shaking there, ensuring that everything is firmly grounded, supported, braced. Telltale Sauce is an architectural masterpiece. It's also a head-hung downer. Because for every unforgettable hook, for every harmonized embrace, there's a shattering confrontation in the lyrics. As the twinned, weary voices of Scherfig and Ditte Gyldendal Amby sing on the title track, "Change is gonna come," before clarifying: "It'll hunt us down forever." Perhaps Telltale Sauce is best understood as Madchester without the drugs-all the smeared colors and harsh edges of, like, The Stone Roses, but forced into the sober, inevitable light of 2022.