I’ve been meaning to write about it since, but Brian Davey at Feasta has beaten me to it with a great summary here:

http://www.feasta.org/2011/06/10/what-could-a-post-growth-society-look-like-and-how-should-we-prepare-for-it/

I think that Transition has been quite skilful over the last 5 years in  creating an approach and a vision that appeals beyond the usual suspects.  While “compost loos, vegan food and democratic decision making structures” may inspire those who go to Climate Camp, they may well have the opposite effect on those we are actively trying to engage.  We talk of people being ‘hard to reach’, but often the language activists use, the way they communicate, dress, speak, and present their arguments means, ironically, that they make themselves ‘hard to reach’ for most ordinary people.

Likewise, “sharing … all our self-education that includes Marxist theory, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, the history of Levellers and Diggers” is almost certain to relegate Transition to being seen as yet another deep green, left wing campaign group. If Transition groups are expected now to make space for the sharing of such insights, are we also prepared to create space for sharing for those who come from very different cultural backgrounds, as well as those who enjoy ‘Top Gear’, who work in industry, or who drive trucks for a living?  For me, a Transition group comes together to pursue an explicit mission, to make their community more resilient, more viable, more diverse, more entrepreneurial and happier.  That’s the focus, not explicitly on each person’s personal political influences.  If it were, we might just as likely have Transition groups that are only open to people who like particular genres of music or support particular football teams.  Charlotte argues that not incorporating an explicit role for activism in Transition “risks fragmenting” it, my very real fear would be that the opposite is far more likely.

My response to him:

This extraordinary article in the Guardian provides some unique insight into the psychology of the rentier class. Henry Pryor, a self-described property expert, has written an article about speculating on property as part of the Guardian’s new year ‘how to make money’ series. The article contains some some of the rawest and truest language I’ve ever heard from a capitalist rentier:

Making money in property requires you to take advantage of others’ misfortune. The three Ds will drive the market this year: death, debt and divorce will be the motivators that throw up the bulk of the opportunities….

follow my carnivorous instincts when I am advising clients and be predatory…

On the subject of buyers, forget the literally “poor” first-time buyers. Let the government worry about building for them (which they won’t). No one wants to lend to them and they struggle to save the £35k deposit out of taxed income now that they have to repay their student loans…

Abroad, follow Ryanair. Where can you fly for a fiver? Look to buy or rent a second home there. As with the UK, follow the smell of rotting meat and make derisory offers.

The Guardian has performed a great public service in publishing this. Rent has always been a tax on the poor from the rich. If you are fortunate enough to buy and get a mortgage, remember that the word ‘mortgage’ comes from the French for ‘death pledge’. It’s not for nothing that Jesus drove the usurers from the temple.

Happy new year- it will be an interesting one

A man in Spain has spent almost 50 years building a church entirely from scrap, after he was expelled from a monastery after he contracted tuberculosis.

Justo Gallego, 85, says the construction in Mejorada del Campo is an “act of faith” but others warn it’s a huge folly – and say that the building, which has never had planning permission, could be pulled down.

This is brilliant. I love Spains palpable edge of lawlessness. If he’d tried this in Scotland it would’ve been torn town in seconds by a bureaucratic jobsworth from the council’s planning department.

Our friends in Milton, North Glasgow, are trying to build a church with recycled materials and have funding for design and research, but it will be a while before it’s up and running. Visit http://www.lovemilton.org/ to find out more.

Agroecology is basically scientifically-respectable permaculture: permaculture has never really caught on in these kinds of academic circles, but agroecology has.

Right to Food: “Agroecology outperforms large-scale industrial farming for global food security,” says UN expert

BRUSSELS (22 June 2010) – “Governments and international agencies urgently need to boost ecological farming techniques to increase food production and save the climate,” said UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, while presenting the findings at an international meeting on agroecology held in Brussels on 21 and 22 June.

Along with 25 of the world’s most renowned experts on agroecology, the UN expert urged the international community to re-think current agricultural policies and build on the potential of agroecology.

“One year ago, Heads of States at the G20 gathering in Italy committed to mobilizing $22 billion over a period of three years to improve global food security. This was welcome news, but the most pressing issue regarding reinvestment in agriculture is not how much, but how,” Olivier De Schutter said .

“Today, most efforts are made towards large-scale investments in land – including many instances of land grabbing – and towards a ‘Green Revolution’ model to boost food production: improved seeds, chemical fertilisers and machines,” the Special Rapporteur remarked. “But scant attention has been paid to agroecological methods that have been shown to improve food production and farmers’ incomes, while at the same time protecting the soil, water, and climate.”

The widest study ever conducted on agroecological approaches (Jules Pretty, Essex University, UK) covered 286 projects in 57 developing countries, representing a total surface of 37 million hectares: the average crop yield gain was 79%. Concrete examples of ‘agroecological success stories’ abound in Africa.

In Tanzania, the Western provinces of Shinyanga and Tabora used to be known as the ‘Desert of Tanzania’. However, the use of agroforestry techniques and participatory processes allowed some 350,000 hectares of land to be rehabilitated in two decades. Profits per household rose by as much as USD 500 a year. Similar techniques are used in Malawi, where some 100,000 smallholders in 2005 benefited to some degree from the use of fertilizer trees.

“With more than a billion hungry people on the planet, and the climate disruptions ahead of us, we must rapidly scale up these sustainable techniques,” De Schutter said. “Even if it makes the task more complex, we have to find a way of addressing global hunger, climate change, and the depletion of natural resources, all at the same time. Anything short of this would be an exercise in futility.”

The experts gathering in Brussels identified the policies that could develop agroecological approaches to the scale needed to feed the world in 2050. They based their work on the experiences of countries that have pro-agroecology policies – such as Cuba or Brazil – as well as on the successful experiences from international research centres such as the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, and on the programmes of La Via Campesina, the transnational peasant movement, which runs agroecology training programmes.

“We can scale up these sustainable models of agriculture, and ensure that they work for the benefit of the poorest farmers. What is needed now is political will to move from successful pilot projects to nation-wide policies,” the UN Special Rapporteur said. In conclusion, he announced that he would ask the Committee on World Food Security – what should become in time the ‘Security Council’ for food security – to work during its October session on the policy levers to scale up agroecology. “This is the best option we have today. We can’t afford not to use it.”

Original post here.

A stunning artistic achievement from a sadly defunct band
In a beautifully-packaged and designed cardboard sleeve, Glasgow foursome Snowblood present their third and final record, and what a record it is too. Inhabiting the space between post rock and doom metal, they take what is in some respects a cross of two genres which should potentially work really well and somehow weave it into something even better than the sum of its parts would suggest possible.

Failing to title either the album itself or any of the four tracks contained within would for some bands be unthinkable; but in Snowblood’s case, correct; simply allowing the music to speak for itself. Not that you should expect they would be to any degree interested in commercial concerns – or even what anyone outside the band thinks of them. The shortest song on here is over 10 minutes long; there is no compromise of any kind that could be allowed to dilute their artistic vision within a million miles of this record, and it is all the better for it.

Such a pure piece of sonic art will obviously hold appeal to a relatively small range of people, and that’s all the better. Those who find this record will cherish it for its depth, its emotional power, and the vast, undeniable crescendos to which these songs build. Beauty incarnate, twisted but pure.

Here’s one from Jay Snyder of Hellride Music:

Man, Glasgow, Scotland’s genre defying quartet Snowblood are one hell of an uncompromising entity, but I have to say I’ve done a poor job of keeping in the thick of their progressive, challenging take on doom n’ gloom. I got into the band when their debut LP, The Human Tragedy came out in 2004, although I didn’t buy the damn thing until 2009! There are entire songs on that disc (“Cape Wrath” in particular) that I can only describe as phenomenal, and any extreme doom fans who give the songs a chance to unfold will find something truly worthwhile.

To make this reviewer’s matters even worse, the lazy son of a gun didn’t even bother to check out the band’s second disc Being and Becoming, which garnered acclaim and praise from just about everyone who heard it and wrote about it. While it’s possible to coin certain parts of their tunes with the much loathed “post” way of thinking, anyone who takes the time to sit down with the band will find that their post influences are far jazzier, and more progressive than those just going through the motions not to mention they are a small part of a full realized whole.

Additionally within the band’s vast corridors of sound, you’ll find the crushing, mesmerizing repetitions of Selfless era Godflesh, the feral bass laden thunder of prime Electric Wizard, topped off with the murderous venom of Goatsblood and UK scum doom and maybe even a little bit of Willpower era Today is the Day thrown in for the way the band will say “fuck it” and explode into high-frequency noise curmudgeon when the occasion calls for it. To add to the sadness of this story (mainly the sadness of how the reviewer failed to follow a truly exciting band, properly) this S/T affair is to be the band’s final recorded output before calling it a day. It looks I was destined for misfortune in my fandom of the band, so the least I can do is assemble a review for these well deserving lads, since their day in the sun will come to a close due to the distant living situations of those in the inner circle of the Snowblood ranks.

Opening with an untitled, 15+ minute cut (each of the four tunes is untitled, lending a cryptic finality to the band’s work here), the band illuminates all areas of their sound right off the bat. Clean chords mingle with buzzing low-end distortion, creating an uneasy mood of progressive, post dementia that’s forged into something otherworldly with vocalist Luke’s plaintive ethereal singing that’s full of vivid character. Jazzy drumming leans heavy on the complexity and showcases Ewan’s attentive detail to lucid fills and nuanced cymbal crashes. Tobin keeps building on the progressive melodies introduced earlier by his guitar, and as the volume increases so does the nasty buzz of Youngy’s low-end. It’s an Isis type build, but something is different, far more threatening and just all around better. Intensity rises with each movement, with the song seeing a run of broken neck, noise-rock chords and dual vocals that retain the melody in a backing line, with a sickening, drugged out screech providing the gusto in the foreground. The song whips into a religiously, psychotic fervor near the 6 minute mark with an acerbic ascension of noise that packs the same moody, rabid animal wallop of TITD classics such as “6 Dementia Satyr” or “Sidewinder”; layers upon layers of noise, boiling with anger and the kind of ear damaged chords that makes your skin feel as if its peeling off the bone as you listen to this record. Continuing to dazzle, while throwing the rulebook clean out the window, the band plows headlong into a murky, repetitive DOOM riff that’s about as viciously heavy and against the grain they come; trudging forward with a deliberate, bad intent that’s fully realized whenever the sound itself dissipates into an explosive wall of noise where Ewan bashes his kit into a million pieces and all stringed instruments converge into a caterwaul of scraping pain that most bands would use as a means to an end for a song. Not fucking Snowblood! Instead of sealing the deal on this note, they vanish back into a soul sucking void of dopesick screams and God fearing, Goatsblood flavored hate crawl.

The ability of this band to so deftly mix beautiful contemplation with ugly, UK filth doom is second to none, and quite beyond my sense of comprehension. They pull no punches, and never for a second does the band sound as if their trying to capitalize on any sort of trend. Instead this band lurks in a world of flies, disease and famine that is all of their own creation. Even with the aforementioned influences, I can’t say Snowblood sounds anything like their peers, except for in certain isolated instances.

If you’re reeling from the opener, I can’t promise that the second untitled track is going to give you an easy time of things. Clocking in a minute or two longer than its preceding brethren, this one is a spacey, expanded affair with layers upon layers of nuance and subtleties. This is an exercise in taking a singular theme and slowly adding something to each moment, while getting louder and louder in the process. Calmly spoken vocals float free form over light, rising tides of guitar strum, rich low-end and the hum of keyboards. Luke’s vocals bear some semblance to Scott Kelly’s work in his solo project or Blood and Time, creating a timeless horror movie aura that will have you glancing about your area to catch a glimpse of what unseen force lurks just outside of the eye in the room or car that you are listening to this album in. Plenty of echo and delay effects are applied to the guitar, once it assembles into audible distortion during the midsection, continuing the bands lofty climb in mood and atmospherics. Whenever you least it expect, the payoff comes ripping, and what a payoff it is; imagine Godflesh at their most uplifting and enlightening, played with twice the volume, doomed up for the sake of sheer brutality and vicious, vocal rapture tearing your soul apart. It’s a literal sonic whirlwind that’s about as gripping of a climax that you could hope for in the context of such an extended build-up, and the song ends up coming off as the sequel to the dark horse genius that was “Cape Wrath” on The Human Tragedy LP! The way the band exorcises their demons at the end of this one, makes it perfectly appropriate for the haunting keys, echoing guitar strum and tabla percussion to officially close the show.

Following suite, the third track is the serene world of nature you’d see on the Discovery Channel brought to life with sound. Teeming with natural evolutions of bustling, indie blasted guitar work, a kaleidoscope of grooving bass lines, piano and cello…the band again tenses things up for the finale, with another push of deafeningly beautiful guitar melodies, soaring vocals which transform to a white hot scream at the drop of a hat, and “blink n’ you’ll miss it” drum flash. It’s the shortest track on the disc, giving way to the album’s final track. The fourth tune is also the longest (over 17 minutes!), leaving the band enough time to work all sorts of magic. The soothing builds in this tune shimmer with clean vocals and the eerie beauty of later Neurosis, but there’s rougher, turbulent waters ahead with descents into unclean, EW meets Goatsblood sludge pummel, twitchy Am-Rep noise rock peaking and ending with a gothic drone of the highest caliber.

What a shame that this is the last we’ll hear of Snowblood till further notice. They were a one of a kind entity, who combined styles that are vastly disparate, but converge into a unique whole in this band’s ever so able hands. I’m bad at picking favorites, or figuring things out in my overactive mind sometimes, but I think this is the best band to play anything even remotely “post” in the current age. As progressive and melancholic as their sound is, there’s a downtrodden aggressive element here that’s as heavy as the heaviest of doom. There’s also a will to experiment on hand, that’s not like anything out there that’s a direct descendent of Isis. No sir, Snowblood deal in ambiguous manipulation of both pretty constructs and ones that are truly, heaving and brutal.

This is sludge like you’ve never heard, and anyone into the genius that billows from the smokestacks of the UK’s sludge n’ doom corporations, needs to hear every piece of work molded by these fine fellows. Now, it’s time for me to stop being a deadhead and check out the middle child of this trilogy. Farewell Snowblood, and thanks for writing some killer, killer shit! As for you the fan who has fallen out of touch, or for you others who have never heard the band, this S/T masterpiece marks a great time to get yourself acquainted with an overlooked, and underrated band. RIP.

Another from Built on a Weak Spot:

It really is a shame that a band like UK’s Snowblood can go relatively unnoticed during their run while other critically praised bands that operate within the same area musically continue to do so, however less effectively. I was introduced to the band when their second album Being and Becoming was released in 2005 and it was a massive listen of sludgy doom ridden tunes that grabbed my attention from the start. I have never been a big fan of that sort of thing over the years, however when done right it forces you to take notice and that’s part of the beauty of what Snowblood managed to accomplish while remaining in the shadows of so many others sadly. Their music can definitely be considered exhausting to sit down and listen to fully in one sitting, much like I felt when I first heard the debut Jesu LP. Except the thing I appreciate about Snowblood, other than the music itself, is that the band didn’t shy away from that approach as they progressed. They still insist upon creating the type of slow and successive punch that grinds and toils until it hits the payoff, and the payoff almost always proves to be worth it. Here on their third and final album the band is undoubtedly at peak form and at their most challenging with four lengthy compositions for the listeners to digest.

And finally one in Spanish from Zann’s Music:

En un 2003 todavía no plagado por clones de Isis y Neurosis y exento de términos como Post-Metal o Metalgaze, hacía su aparición este cuarteto escocés como una de las propuestas más prometedoras dentro del estilo. Snowblood lograba moverse entre frágiles rasgueos melódicos dignos del más sensible Indie-Rock, elaborados paisajes de ensoñación Post-rockera y contaminadas explosiones del más cáustico Sludge, manejando esos elementos de forma sumamente personal, eludiendo con gracia la copia descarada y entregándose a la faena con una intensidad y una crudeza destacables. Cuatro años después del anterior “Being and becoming”, finalmente ve la luz este álbum homónimo que fuera grabado en septiembre de 2006. Cuarto extensos temas (el disco dura más de una hora) sin título es lo que encontramos aquí, y en ellos la confirmación de que, aún en estos tiempos atestados de sonidos monolíticos y dinámicas cambiantes, Snowblood es una banda para tener en cuenta. Las guitarras pulieron su sonido pero sin abandonar del todo esa rasposidad que los acercaba al Indie-Rock, los extensos paseos Post-Rockeros siguen ahí, pintando preciosas visiones de verdes montañas y cristalinas aguas siempre prestas a quebrarse bajo el pulso crepitante del costado más virulento del grupo. Y sí, cuando los tipos pisan la distorsión, el universo mismo se viene abajo. Riffs enfermos de graves que pondrían verde de envidia al Jimmy Bower más pasado de drogas, bases densas con alcances épicos y un latir claramente Hardcore y unos alaridos que penetran los tímpanos como esquirlas de vidrios rotos. Pero eso no es todo, Snowblood no se conforma con seguir al pie de la letra las convenciones del, ahora sí, Post-Metal. Así, podemos encontrar voces limpias (y afinadas, lo cual no es un dato menor) adornando no sólo las partes tranquilas, si no también llevando las riendas de la tensión y la violencia. También es necesario mencionar que la crudeza no es punto menor en esta propuesta. Lejos del detallismo casi inhumano (por no decir frío y carente de alma) de algunos de los clones de Neurosis (no, no voy a dar nombres. Cada cual que ubique el que prefiera aquí), Snowblood se entrega con una urgencia abrumadora y salvaje que, no obstante, no disminuye la inteligencia de los arreglos y los riffs. Vamos, esta gente comprendió que lo realmente importante es el fuego interno, que las ideas tienen que estar al servicio de éste y no al revés. Y si eso significa alguna que otra desprolijidad instrumental o sonora, producto del exceso de energía, bienvenido sea. En fin, estamos en 2009 y el Post-Metal se está transformando (lamentablemente) en sinónimo de ideas repetidas y discos soporíferos. Pero no teman, Snowblood todavía nos da motivos para seguir creyendo.

UPDATE MAY 2011: This post has received a certain amount of attention due to its critical content. I have been contacted by people ranging from a magazine editor, to international planning students about my perspective on Sustainable Glasgow. While I stand by much of the content, things have changed. With former council leader Steven Purcell’s resignation, and the publication of Glasgow City Council’s relatively progressive climate change strategy, it may be that things are moving forward. I will be shortly launching a social enterprise aiming to promote equal access for dispossessed communities to the growing renewables sector in Scotland, so the polemics will need to give way to positive alternatives- it’s easy to criticise without offering another way!

Yesterday saw the launch event of Sustainable Glasgow, a partnership between Glasgow City Council, the University of Strathclyde and several energy corporations.

It’s aim is to make Glasgow into one of the most sustainable cities in Europe in the next ten years. Sounds good? Let’s take a closer look at some of the aims (direct quotes from the Sustainable Glasgow report in grey):

creation of urban woodlands in the city’s vacant land – literally making Glasgow greener;

North Kelvin Meadow is doing just that. Surely Glasgow City Council is giving this project it’s full support as part of their Sustainable Glasgow policy?

Not quite: Glasgow City Council is trying to evict those working on the meadow and raze it to build flats.

Restricting use of petrol and diesel vehicles;
Creation of Low Emission Zones in the city centre;

So Glasgow City Council succesfully resisted the M74 extension that would bulldoze its way through the city, which was rejected by a public inquiry because “policies for environmental protection and improvement would be breached along various sections of the route, where some adjacent and nearby areas would be affected by increased noise, visual intrusion, and airborne emissions, and severe noise and disruption during construction” and “”those living along the route would suffer from the adverse environmental impacts, with little benefit, while the main advantages of the new road would accrue to non-resident vehicle users passing along the new motorway, and to businesses located mainly outwith the area”?

Not quite. The M74 is being built as we speak as is slithering its way through the city like a vile concrete snake.

Creation of systems to turn the city’s sewage and
municipal waste into biogas;

Does this mean that the discredited plan to build autoclave plants across Glasgow has been abandoned? Either way, the city is facing millions of pounds in landfill fines from this year: it’s the worst in Scotland for recycling.

Development of a district heating system for the city – starting in 5 identified zones;
Development of highly efficient natural gas/biogas fuelled Combined Heat and Power systems;

This is promising, and such a system, developed, owned and operated for the common good would be great asset to Glasgow. That’s not what ‘Sustainable Glasgow’ has in mind, however. Here’s what they propose, and it’s deeply problematic:

Sustainable Glasgow’s proposed business model for implementing many of the major projects is through public/private partnership. The Council’s clear support and involvement would reduce the risk perceived by investors – thus making it easier draw in significant private sector funding.

In other words, corporations will be able to extract profit from Sustainable Glasgow’s projects, with the taxpayer left to carry any liability. The public/private partnership model has been shown to be a scam : maximised profit for corporations, a complete rip-off for the taxpayer.

Sustainable Glasgow’s Hall of Shame

Here’s some of the stakeholders of ‘Sustainable Glasgow’ (note that there is not a single representative from an environmental organisation):

Scottish and Southern Energy

Named by the Scottish Environmental Protection agency as one of the filthiest companies in Scotland, and recipients of a £20,000 fine for polluting a South Uist sea loch:

ScottishPower

Operator of the dirtiest coal-fired power plant in Europe;

Source One, a Veolia Energy Company

A company which has attempted to prevent access to details of it’s public/private partnership with another city being made public, and which profits from Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem;

Blitzer, Clancy & Company

An investment banking and management consultancy firm, presumably involved in ‘Sustainable Glasgow’ in order to allow profiteering corporations maximum access to Glasgow’s common good:

Where do the people of Glasgow fit into all this? While there’s a sprinkling of managerialist jargon about “sustainability champions” and “stakeholders” in local communities, it’s quite clear where the power lies:

Creation of a high level steering group;
Appointment of a Sustainable City “tsar”;

all Sustainable Glasgow projects are designed to take account of behavioural change issues, and support behavioural change programmes as an integral part of their design;

No mention at all of grassroots community groups who are already trying to affect radical change in their communities, from Carbon Rationing Action Groups, to transition initiatives, to many others:  and all expected to have their behaviour changed via a programme.

Glasgow Labour Mafia: now with a green fig leaf

It’s good to see Glasgow City Council enaging with sustainability issues and to begin to propose ways to transforming the city. This certainly should include energy providers, which we all use and are therefore complicit with. While I can support this in theory, I cannot give ‘Sustainable Glasgow’ my blessing. In summary, this is a proposal to offer Glasgow’s future development on a plate to some of the filthiest corporations, for profit, with only a token involvement of the communities affected, to be controlled by an unelected ‘tsar’.

It would seem this is yet another example of the “West Coast Labour mafia. It’s not about changing the world, making life better for the working class. It’s about looking after yourself and your mates and not being accountable to anyone. It’s mate-ocracy“.

I love this dirty sprawling city and it deserves better. I call on anyone who agrees to contact Stephen Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, and demand a real Sustainable Glasgow.

“It’s been almost 3 years since we last heard from Snowblood, who at the time were super hyped to us as being a “metal Mogwai”, which makes sense as they are Scottish, they write epic slow burning metallic post rock jams, and they manages to fuse extreme heaviness with super melodic rock, but unlike Mogwai, these guys get very VERY metal, as in ULTRA heavy, sometimes sludgey and crushing, other times frenzied and thrashy, incorporating howling black metal vokills, even blast beats.
This long in the works new album, finds the band refining their sound, the prettier melodic parts are a bit crunchier, a little more krautrocky, loping and hypnotic, and the heavy parts, well, the band have really outdone themselves, kicking out the metallic jams big time, exploding into bursts of Coalesce / Converge chaotic fury before stumbling into lurching epic metallic doom sludge, the vocals even more harsh and hellish than before, the band sometime slowing it way down and dipping into full on Eyehategod territory.
Four long tracks, none shorter than 10 minutes, the longest a sprawling 18:31, each one a meandering journey from drift and strum and jangle to pummel and crush and crumble. The second track is all washed out and shoegazey with what sounds like accordions or strings, adding a layer of woozy buzz, until the band explodes into another bout of brutality, at which point those accordions or strings get all super distorted and sound almost like a metal kazoo, the effect is not as goofy as it sounds, especially considering the band lock into a seriously intense minor key mournful doom metal dirge. The third trajectory is the mathiest of the bunch, and never quite gets full metallized, although the vocals get pretty harsh, but the music gets more loud / epic Mogwai style, a Godspeed like flourish before settling back into a drifty post rocky fade out.
The final track mixes it up and starts out all metal, a huge churning chug, with a soaring main melody, those killer vox, before breaking down into a cool abstract drift, with jagged shards of droneguitar, fractured fragmented riffs, a downtuned crumbling chug way off in the distance, all woven around a woozy minor key melody, before exploding into another stretch of churning riffage and intense drum pound, finally finishing off with a thick wall of guitar hum and hiss. Awesome stuff. Seems like these guys should be massive, touring with Isis and Neurosis and Baroness and all those sorts of heavy hitters, maybe they do on the other side of the ocean, but it seems like over here they’re way more under the radar, metalheads and post rockers over here need to get hip to these guys, lots of folks just might find themselves with a new favorite band. Killer packaging, housed in a gorgeous silkscreened cardstock sleeve, with a fancy fold out printed insert.”

The ‘metal kazoo’ they refer to, by the way, is a melodica!

If you’re in the States and want to get hold of the record, Aquarius is your best bet.