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out of the walled pathway

Stray Dog Army

MZL005

November 2006

46:04

 

This is the third album from Mole Harness, following the acclaimed ‘a present from the future’. Whilst the latter was painstakingly crafted and conceived as a whole, the writing process of this follow-up was much quicker, freer and more spontaneous, leading to a more varied work.

‘a present…’ was constructed entirely from guitar sounds, and whereas all the melodic elements of ‘…pathway’ are still made from guitars, the processed tones are more varied in their timbre, and are also augmented by the return of more rhythmic and purely textural elements. This shift is illustrated by ‘fallout census man’, with its cut-up CD skips and radio static, as well as ‘a feast for regret’ with its shuffling guitar-body percussion and skittering drum machine hi-hats.

‘foothills of the informant’ and ‘fallout census man’ also show Brewster’s guitar playing at its most fluid and expressive so far. Freed from layered structures, the characteristics of a single guitar are now allowed to become the focus of a piece.

An increasingly minimalist approach defines much of the album. ‘the sunless pool and home’ is based around a group of melodic sequences drifting apart from each other, recombining from one chord progression into another. The structure of ‘a feast for regret’ was initially inspired by playing two completely different tracks over the top of each other at random. The original track develops normally for five minutes, before another one enters and they struggle for dominance, switching priority at a crucial moment. Once this first section ends, elements of both tracks then gradually re-emerge, this time uniting in a 15 minute sequence of overlapping melodic themes, evolving phrase cycles and hypnotic drones.

In mid 2006 Brewster moved to Malmö in Sweden, so ‘out of the walled pathway’ was the last Mole Harness album to be written entirely in Bristol, UK, the city where he first started making music five years ago.

The CD comes in a black card sleeve, with cover photograph by Cecilia Ek.

Limited to 150 copies, sold out.

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1. fallout census man

2. the sunless pool and home

3. foothills of the informant

4. a feast for regret