Midding - 0.44

Made between Rat Trap Studios and Fairoak, their own home-built recording set-up, these new songs represent the first time they've set live drums to record. The results are marked, shifting from the linear pulse of that first EP to something more dynamic and agile. A bedroom project has now become a fully functioning group.

As with the previous EP, all five songs were recorded to tape, which gives .44 its in-room feel, imbuing a sense of claustrophobia that neatly matches the subject matter of the lyrics, referencing cultdom, serial killer fanaticism, depression and, ultimately, ecstatic release.

Tracks like 'All For You' and 'Nuisance' flex with a melodic confidence that's both accessible and off-kilter, though the greatest transgression can be heard on 'For A Little While', a churning spacerock blast overlaid with indecipherable, automatic writing-derived lyrics that suggest some kind of Lovecraftian portal may have been opened up in Wales during recording. Into that portal we might follow...

RIYL: Psychic TV, Jesus and Mary Chain, Beat Happening, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spacemen 3