BLEEDING HEART NARRATIVE : ALL THAT WAS MISSING WE NEVER HAD IN THE WORLD
Cold Spring
Let me be honest here (Gods help me I sound like an MP now!), I truly don’t know what to make of this album, I almost can’t get my head around it. It bursts from your speakers in a wave of dissonant bombastic noise, then segues into a curiously ‘pretty’ piece which combines an old (?) echoing upright piano accompanied by ‘sighing’ cellos – which might not be out of place in an ‘art house’ movie… easily ‘pigeonholed’ it cannot be.
In a curious way, I find myself thinking of Sigur Ros here, but less ‘innocent’ and nowhere near as beautiful or comforting. From here the album (to my mind) flows from influences as diverse as Brian Eno, Bass Communion, Amber Asylum, Alex Tuirniaev… it is both melancholic and haunting, repetitive piano strains and “hushed” or almost reverent vocals carry the album through its epic voyage…and yet…
It is a flawed magnum opus, overly long certainly, some candid editing would have been both justified and (again to these ears) judiciously expedient. Whilst Oliver Barrett (for it is his project) should certainly be commended for the singularity of his musical “vision”, and the elegant construction/composition of the album, I feel as if I’m damning him with faint praise… and I certainly don’t mean to.
If your love of Cold Spring is for the more dissonant, icy, discordant, blastingly heavy noise, then this album may not be instantly for you. However, it is still very much ‘of’ the true essence and finest traditions of its label and home, and I can immediately see why Justin chose to release “All That Was Missing…” For me, this is a dreamlike, trance inducing ‘late night’ album, ideally listened to by flickering candlelight, or even backlit by the starry summer skies themselves… My advice? To coin a cliché – Listen Without Prejudice.
70/100
SATANIC MUTTLEY
