HERD OF INSTINCT

Herd of Instinct is a stunning, stunning album. It is pulsating and rich, like an unstoppable stream at some places, but very vulnerable and delicate at others. It is not really instrumental, but has an instrumental feel to it in that the voices are mainly used as instruments and building blocks of the overall atmosphere. Given that this is Harris and Webb from Talk Talk, some similarities are not surprising. The production and sound again focuses on bringing out the lively, natural, "breathing" character of the instruments and voices. Harris's drums are straight and direct (although heavy added percussion makes the rhythm much more complex at times) and again many guest musicians contribute to the overall picture, filling it up to the rim with diverse sounds, some calm, some noisy, some funny.

The songs are never driven by conventional melodies. Usually the rhythm takes the command, supported by some melodic riffs and phrases, in many cases with some strong dynamic leading from a rather "tentative" beginning to a veritable storm that takes everything with it; then there are also some more avant-gardish sound experiments that work very well in my view. Influences of Can's rhythmic improvisations and Holger Czukay's sound creations are obvious. If you like this kind of rhythmic, atmospheric stream, this is for you, and in this "genre" it's exceptionally rich and dynamic.

4.5 stars. Man this was love at first listen. A project by the bassist and drummer for TALK TALK where they sort of continue that unique Post-Rock sound only they go in a different direction to more of a World Music vibe. Who knew how talented TAK TALK really was back in their more poppy days? I mean these two guys play a multitude of instruments and both sing. They play ethnic instruments too helping with that World Music sound. We get a host of guests adding many more sounds and flavours including a female vocalist who is awesome! Also Graham Sutton from BARK PSYCHOSIS adds guitar on the first three tracks. To sum up the sound we get a lot of atmosphere, and a ton of percussion beats along with male and female vocal expressions, melodies and words.