So Relent is not really something that will grab you, but then, I suppose its main strengths are its patience, its disarming simplicity and its clever sense of balance.
So Relent is not really something that will grab you, but then, I suppose its main strengths are its patience, its disarming simplicity and its clever sense of balance.
Preserved Sound http://preservedsound.bandcamp.com/album/relent
You should always give things a few plays. Sometimes a bit of gestation time is what is needed; a quality that forms the interesting sonic moulds and lichens in your psyche. And certain records (Relent being onesuch) should be given enough time, so that they can start to affect the irrational elements in your emotional makeup. It can’t be easy for a record like this; as it’s easy to think “oh, quiet, pastoral stuff, very English, a tad introspective, all very Alexander Tucker” and then move on. Be daft if you did… as it has one of those dreamscape sounds that seems to forever wind in and out of your consciousness. So Relent is not really something that will grab you, but then, I suppose its main strengths are its patience, its disarming simplicity and its clever sense of balance. You hear this at its best on the brilliantly evocative and steadfast Silbury.
And the tracks are definitely pretty, with a lot of attention to harmonics and loop; and with tracks like I Know You Are Never Coming Home, A Hundred Leaves, or A Message From This World From That Which Is To Come, you detect a steadiness and sense of overwhelming quiet; something that’s similar in spirit to James Blackshaw’s work. There’s also a fuzzy, fuggy, brackish seventies element that works a treat when it’s let out of the box. Pose of A Saint possesses a blurry eyed, early morning feel that just screams ‘mid 1970s’ at you; a morose sonic landscape conjured up with nods to Vini Reilly and Van der Graaf Generator, or maybe a very very early post-Syd Floyd instrumental break. Last track, Thank You Fog could be the soundtrack to some weird pagan flick made for the TV; and (acting in character, so to speak) seems to get itself in a mild sweat whilst trying to find a henge on some Down or other, but rallies to create a thick and satisfying sonic stew with the aid of a solid, reassuring guitar pattern and increasingly forceful droning from the synths.
Very enjoyable, definitely moreish.