The British quartet’s second album after 2019’s Schlagenheim continues their boundary-pushing direction of frenetic, eclectic mix of the avant garde – jazz, funk, prog in a skilled delirium of wonderful compositions. Opener John L was previously featured in our New Songs section, and is as striking as it is challenging, referring to a violence-stirring cult fanatic with a feast of nightmarish stop-starts, added violins, keyboards and a spoken narrative that points a finger at fascism, the ‘L’ in the title is the Roman numeral meaning ‘fifty’. It echoes some of the more extreme sides of Scott Walker, such as his extraordinary soundtrack for Childhood of A Leader Marlene Dietrich is a dreamy, strange, loungey number with distant echoes of Pink Floyd as well as Scott Walker, only his 60s crooner side. Chondromalacia Patella is a spiky piece of post-punk jazz instrumental, Slow is of course anything but that adjective, a restless, jaggery piece of jazz with soaring semi-spoken vocals. Diamond Stuff is however slow, experimental, a plinky strings adventure in oddity. Dethroned is a jazz sax odyssey that morphs into a wild exploration into fast drumming and post-punk guitar. Hogwash and Balderdash is, with plenty of competition, perhaps the strangest of all, an almost comedic mix if stop-starts that matches well with John L, while final track Ascending Forth builds from sweet acoustic guitars into a climax drums, and crashing drums into a prog absurdity, somewhere between early Genesis and croony melodrama. Brilliantly unpredictable, and admirably so. Out on Rough Trade.
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