CODENAME: DUSTSUCKER

• A Street Scene Hex, 1994

It's appropriate that Lee Harris, the drummer and percussionist for late-period Talk Talk, guests on this much-delayed second album by the masterful Bark Psychosis. Both Talk Talk and Bark Psychosis were absolutely key to the foundation of the post-rock subgenre - the term, in fact, was invented by reviewers scrambling for a way to describe the first Bark Psychosis album - but most of the second-tier bands who started playing post-rock once it had coalesced as a genre took their lead not from Talk Talk or Bark Psychosis but from groups such as Mogwai, Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor, possibly because it was more readily evident how to mimic those bands' sound whereas Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock and Hex by Bark Psychosis seemed to be the result of brilliant, unrepeatable accidents.

Well, Codename: Dustsucker proves just how wrong that is, in that it manages to be a brilliant continuation of the sound of Hex which, if anything, broadens its horizons (there's some interludes which approach straightforward jazz) whilst at the same time beating most latter-day post-rock groups at their own game. In fact, whilst Hex suggested the manifold possibilities of the post-rock genre, Dustsucker does a far better job at actually realising their potential.

Send comments to Warthur (BETA) | Report this review (#671276) | Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Out of nowhere comes an album and group I've never heard of producing amazing music! I'm hearing Stereolab, Ben Watt, David Sylvian, Lunatic Soul, Ulver, Massive Attack, No-Man, Tortoise, XTC, Bill Evans, Koop, The Jazzmasters, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The Beta Band, Adam Plack, Alain Esk ... (read more)

Report this review (#636408) | Posted by BrufordFreak | Sunday, February 19, 2012 | Review Permanlink

As the band who happened to be at the front of the queue when the Wire were distributing the latest batch of slightly grandstanding genre names, Bark Psychosis have gathered quite a reputation among post-rock fans. Sure, Hex may have come after Spiderland and Laughing Stock and Millions Now Livin ... (read more)

Report this review (#157588) | Posted by tragiclifestories | Thursday, January 03, 2008 | Review Permanlink

This is an incredible album, better than their first. This truly is a band that more people should know about. Of course there is the perverse pleasure of feeling like you're privilaged because you're hearing this great music when most aren't. And besides, any band that takes 10 years to release a ... (read more)

Report this review (#146167) | Posted by King Crimson776 | Sunday, October 21, 2007 | Review Permanlink

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