COWARDS

Brighton's most creative "jazz" musicians have come up with enough material for another full-length LP release--this their third since 2020.

1. "Crispy Skin" (6:19) high-speed rendered keyboard sequence is accompanied by odd industrial incidentals and voices in a very ARCADE FIRE-meets-William Drake/NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA--a theme that plays out as the song coagulates and moves forward. Ollie's voice sounds like a cross between the sarcasm of IT'S IMMATERIAL's John Campbell and the feigned boredom of MORRISSEY or RODDY FRAME. Overall the song is innocuous yet dangerously hypnotic. There is genius in these sound waves! (9.25/10)

2. "Building 650" (3:51) this one sounds like an XTC - WIN BUTLER/AIRTO LINDSAY/DAVID BYRNE collaboration though the heavily-percussive orientation of the opening song continues in the musical instrument construction and performances. After 90 seconds of straightforward hypnotherapy the band and music suddenly switch directions: using a Radiohead-like sound palette to bridge into a more lively, truly XTC-like motif. Brilliant song composition though I find Ollie's performance in the second half to be the detractor while in the first half it was the positive. (9/10)

3. "Blood on the Boulders" (5:46) now this is a soundscape that MARK HOLLIS would feel right at home with. The use of additional vocalists (including female!) in the chorus adds an odd twist--especially since Ollie is singing about the unfortunate demise and death of a drugged-up young woman out in nature. In a style that Kavus Torabi would be proud of, the band ramps things up into a more punk rock drive-it-home-until-they-puke-and-collapse-to-the-ground style of music for the mid-section before returning to the previous despondent Paris, Texas desert sound for the finish. Michael Gira would love this one! (8.875/10)

4. "Fieldworks I" (2:23) now they're channeling Damon Waitkus (JACK O' THE CLOCK)! I love the chaos of the strings of the Ruisi Quartet swirling beneath Ollie's narration! (4.75/5) 5. "Fieldworks II" (3:19) the JACK O' THE CLOCK (and a bit of NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA) similarities continue--even going so far as incorporating lots of folk instrumentation, microtonals, and chaotic string arrangements all woven together. The finish reminds me of the music of GRAVENHURST's late great singer-songwriter Nichola John Talbot. (9/10)

6. "Cro-Magnon Man" (4:07) Blur, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Tom Tom Club, The Ambitious Lovers, Prince, Gang of Four--these are the bands that come easily to mind as I listen to this delightful blend of so many sounds, styles, and songs--a real blast of the past. I tell you: there is genius flowing through this band's collective mind! (9/10)

7. "Cowards" (5:51) Chaotic droning, "silently-screaming" strings. Flugelhorn and keyboard special effects. Gently picked acoustic guitar. Ollie's gentle, sleepy vocal. Gentle percussion. At 2:25 the band kicks into a horn- and vocalese-supported four-chord vamp over which Ollie sings with more vim and insistence in his intentionally-monotone voice. Great arrangement for this weave! (9/10)

8. "Showtime!" (5:08) so hard to classify and describe this Lou Reed Ambitious Lovers-like song. When drums and guitar really take over in the second half I'm suddenly reminded of the stark similarity to the music and vocal stylings of SWANS. (9/10)

9. "Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)" (8:15) sounds like acoustic Discipline-era King Crimson with David Torn, Mark Isham, and Ryuichi Sakamoto and on board for the vocals along with Ollie's best Michael Gera or Luka Bloom impression. The finished product wouldn't have surprised me if you told me it was something by Mark Hollis. (17.75/20)

Total Time 44:59

Drummer Ollie Judge is back to his theatric, pretentious, punk poetry reading vocals as he was on O Monolith and Bright Green Field (more the latter than the former). The odd yet creative music beneath his crooning complaining is odd enough to remind me of a blend of GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR with LOU REED, Michael Giro's SWANS, and Airto Lindsay's AMBITIOUS LOVERS. I really love the refreshing new ozonegen being injected into the blood of Old Man Prog by these creative young upstarts! I love the unusual use of strings for the creation of a constant underlying chaos and confusion: this is the part that reminds me of GY!BE.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of refreshing and highly-creative eclectic song presentations that, for me, help invigorate the rumour that a "prog punk" element is growing, thriving on the fringes of the progressive rock dinosaur (like a symbiotic swarm of flies, moss, or remora). Really essential . . . for the health and longevity of a living prog.