Hierophant Nox

ALBUM REVIEW

Bleeding Heart Narrative - Tongue Tangled Hair
Tartaruga Records
With Satanic Muttley captivated, if not a little confused, by Bleeding Heart Narrative’s rich, ‘late-night’ “All That Was Missing we Never Had in the World” earlier on this year, it was a pleasure to discover that Oliver Barrett had been busy again, summoning another warm, complex, evocative escape in the form of “Tongue Tangled Hair”. BHN’s releases are tactile, treasurable things, all thick cardboard and imagination-snagging line drawings (courtesy of the artist). There’s an esoteric delight to be had just from running your fingers over them, so it’s fitting that the compositions, too, strike secret yet familiar internal chords of joy and pain.

Opener “At the End of it All” is nothing else but a musical sunrise, as buoyancy and complexity increase gradually into the messy but beautiful whispering that serves as this album’s fay but not entirely graspable guide. Indeed, Barrett’s vocals are the key to BHN’s secretive, personal feel, whether he’s whispering or, as on “Henry Box Brown”, using a thin, clean, whimsical, lilting vocal. His performance is intimate but not all-revealing, permitting the listener to follow his musical paths wherever they will, rather than having their feelings dictated. Aside from the voice, it’s the huge, atmospheric, mind-altering drones, the gently tickled acoustic, the barely-held-together piano and the mellow yet sometimes ominous cello that give this project its texture and presence.

It’s hard to pick favourites from an album that seems like a coherent journey, but “Earthing”’s combination of electronics and piano is particularly striking, as is the fairy-like bass of “Tilted the Wall”, which is a piece that feels utterly magical, soaring as it does, eventually, into the sky with haunting strings. “Colours Turn Colours” alters the flow by employing a thing beat, whilst “David Foster Wallace” progresses from dreamy strumming to strong strings, hitting a bit but not entirely melodic climax, which is both clever and interesting. “The Vast Museum of Insignificant Things”, as well as having a wonderful title, is a beautiful creature, with quiet, pregnant acoustic strumming giving way to lovely strings, whilst “A Dialogue” makes use of layers at odd with each other, kooky beats and soaring but faraway vocals to engage the listener’s brain.

BHN’s work would turn most people’s notion of a ‘noise experiment’ clean on its head (then perhaps point and laugh ethereally for good measure). The project’s solid drone foundation sparks introspection and memory while the instrumental accents pick at emotions and scatter transcendent thoughts of maybe and might have been. It’s an earnest, evocative release which will be way outside the normal listening range of the majority of the souls who lurk here but really, you’d be a fool not to open your mind to this magical, cultish sound.