Debut album from the avant-whatever improv collective from south London. Propelled by the drums and the rhythms generated by cheap samplers and drum machines, the band revel in the joy of angular repetition, throwing in elastic interruptions on guitar, trombone, analogue and digital synthesisers and vocals.
Reviews: "The missing link between krautrock and Lee Scratch Perry". [Rock A Rolla] "...the spirit of Ege Banyasi-era Can looms large... There is also a debt to This Heat's post-Prog experimentalism in the detailed tinkering: tape loops, primitive Casio electronics, squelchy moog basslines...borne along by the momentum of a spontaneously self-generating groove." [The Wire] "This debut from the South London sextet is bathed in the rhythmic propulsion of Can, spiky post-punk Moog/guitar interplay, and the dissonance of This Heat" [Uncut] "Like having your head squeezed a full fathom five down, the pressure here is good... throwing in an MC, some synths and a damn fine bit of drumming, this is deeply grooved and experimental stuff" [Clash] "This one here sounds like an evil super-distillation of everything you ever liked about challenging music but you got it chained to the heater of your one-bedroom apartment in order to keep it hidden from the eyes of the world" [Lodown] "Glass Darkly is a refreshingly categorization-resistant blast of unsettling sounds to stroke chins or bust a move to." [Kruger magazine] "Glass Darkly proves to be an audacious yet highly successful experiment in leftfield, futuristic astral-Jazz fusion, always twisting and turning, yet never losing sight of its melodic aesthetic. To provide such consistency through-out the album is a major feat and listeners will undoubtedly have the CD on constant rotation." [experimusic] "A brilliant album full of dark twists and turns" [Buzzin Fly] |
CREDITS
Charles Stuart - synths, drum machine, rhodes, piano, vox
Ben Cowen - synths, sampler Frank Byng - drums, dr sample, electronic percussion 129 - MPC, unprepared guitar, casiotone, voice Tom Marriott - trombone + fx Lucas Suarez - guitar + Oren Marshall - tuba [9] Produced by Frank Byng + Snorkel |