Gravenhurst - Fires In Distant Buildings
[Warp]

If an album cover offers any indication of the material and themes that lie within, then the dark, brooding cityscape that decorates the cover of ‘Fires In Distant Buildings’ is the perfect imagery for this record. Nick Talbot has fashioned a contemporary vision of alienation and darkness that’s unremitting, unsettling and possessed by a cold elegance.

Far from comfortable listening, there’s a theme of violence running through the lyrics, often mirrored in the music. Opener the ‘Down River’ stalks in with a sinister, proggy guitar riff building a palpable sense of tension before collapsing sporadically into spasms of violently thrashed guitars. Even what is on the face of it, the albums most accessible moment, the ‘Velvet Cell’ opens with the couplet “To understand the killer/You must become the killer”. Despite its disturbing theme, it has an icy, motorik pulse, which will have aspiring post punks like The Editors crying into their raincoats. This is as close to pop as Gravenhurst dare to tread.

The albums high water mark, ‘Animals’ is at once unnerving and hypnotic. Talbot returns to previous themes, this time imagining himself as the victim, his body discarded in the river. What halts the descent into total darkness is the arrangement, which is melodic and luminous, and a gorgeous solo that suddenly descends like a ray of sun breaking through the dark clouds offering a hint of salvation.

There is much to admired on this album, particularly in the way that the space between the instruments gives the impression of darkness closing around you, drawing you into Talbot’s ghostly and strangely alluring world. No doubt that this is too much of an uneasy listening experience for the masses, but those not averse to walking on the dark side once in a while will be suitably impressed.