(from CWSY#6, August '01) / home / reviews index
Delicate AWOL
- 'Our Genome' (Day Release Records)
4th June 2001 saw the release of an album influenced by modern science and technology in its approach to song structure and lyrics, classified as 'experimental' though it might not have broken huge boundaries, but nonetheless a time-consuming piece of work from a group deserving to stand with the best in their field. Do you remember what was it called? No, it wasn't 'Amnesiac' by Radiohead, it was the debut album from this London-based quartet.
'She Was Loaded In An Everyday Kind Of Way' might recall Godspeed to a slight degree, but mainly just in the brass introduction. The trumpet wash precedes a seven-minute instrumental alternately strung-out and compressed, played as clean and professional as any faceless 'post-rock' group could manage, but combined with a crucial human element. From 'All Lull And No Storm', for instance, you can tell most obviously from the clear vocals that this music, though played carefully, has nothing clinical about it; "that was a knife I put in your shoulder", showing the song to be as warm or cold as extremes of human emotion. 'Further Afield' sees guitars clambering towards each other and springing off in opposite directions, an organic reaction. Pace changes according to nature and not to mechanical perversity, here and in 'Least Of My Worries'. Lyrics - "he rode the coolest bicycle that I had ever seen" - might seem wilfully obscure, but that's the kind of arbitrary thought that comes across our minds at unexpected moments.
The sound isn't hemmed in by boundaries of traditional structures; 'Reunion' is understated trance-rock spacious like Tortoise, strong drums with Velvety-juddering guitars, like bobbing over alien waves. 'Carmoon' is frenzied Sonic Youth with tropical saltshaker rhythms and some mad fx even stretching to 70s funk-style wah-wah! While 'Toe Poke In The Water' flirts with dance, 'Suffolk Is Renowned For Heavy Horses' (titles to rival Mogwai!) goes for awkward repetition and 'Tailless' is an edgy blender-rocker with vocal instrumentation, like tuning a radio through to Weird-Beard FM. It lacks the Mercury Rev-like calming effect elsewhere on the album, but shows Awol pushing the envelope even into uncomfortable territory.
Like so many of these groups perhaps they have to be seen live to know their full potential, but 'Our Genome' forms the building-blocks for something amazing.
