Gravenhurst - Flashlight Seasons
[Warp]

News of electronic label Warp Records signing not one, but two rank outsiders in !!! (Chk Chk Chk) and Gravenhurst in recent months came as a shock. In the past, the thought of additions to the roster, including a percussion-heavy, punk-funk band and a singer-songwriter, would have left diehard Warp supporters unable to process the news.

From the offset this is a very quiet record, somewhat maudlin & contemplative. A man alone, with his observations. Countryside imagery abounds at all times but it's never a pleasant place to be. There are bodies under the barley corn, lost souls floating around in barns, effigies of straw men hung from the rafters and murderous numbers of funnelweb spiders.

Musically, it's the kind of deft, finger-picked acoustic guitar style pioneered by Nick Drake and John Fahey. But fleshed out with ambient drones, ghostly haunting atmospheres and the occasional introduction of a subtle xylophone or harmonica, almost buried in the mix.

Hallucinatory, echo-drenched acid-folk/alt-country, as much H.P. Lovecraft as Galaxie 500 or Trespassers William. Drums are merely an afterthought, if used at all then tambourines rattle casually and hi-hats splash like pebbles in mill-ponds. Recorded at home on two mics and a 4-track, Nick makes the most of his meagre equipment and sculpts a reverberant, lo-fi soundscape.

Highlights include 'I Turn My Face To The Forest Floor', with its repressed anger and rage bubbling under the surface - Nick tells of a 'murdering fuckhead' who is 'only a stones throw from all the violence you buried years ago' and this brings to mind the subject of the song being subjected to an icy stare, face to face, in an interrogation room somewhere.

There is one sole instrumental track - 'East Of The City'. This crackles with an age-old AM radio charm, phases of ringing slide guitar lap across your speakers and it's a bit like a soundtrack to an imaginary Western.

Very much late night music, don't listen to it when you're chirpy or in a good mood. When things are looking bleak, when you're weary and have had enough, put this on and try not to be impressed as a wry smile flickers across your lips. Warp are on to something here.