Echoes and dust

Swedish band Logh released their 4th album 'North' last year. It saw them throw off the shackles that restricted them on their previous release (the whole of 'Sunset Panorama’ being recorded in one day) but still not realise the potential that was suggested on 'Raging Sun' or the album under the microscope here, 'When A Bell Rings An Angel Gets His Wings' with which they started and as yet have not matched.

With titles such as 'The Bastards Have Landed', 'The Hour We Knew Nothing' and 'Music For Flight Recorders' you could be excused if you expected a mere Mogwai rip off. Instead what you get is a delicate album drenched in echo, melancholy and pathos. Most of the songs use lyrics sparingly, relying instead on the instrumental passages to drive them along. They tread a fine line between post rock and slowcore - reference points being Calla, New Year, American Analogue Set and Sigur Ros. On later albums they have veered away from such sparse lyricism and stark instrumentation (half whispered half sung vocals, lightly brushed snare, occasional synth, lo-fi production values) and have instead replaced these with Chris Martin wannabe songwriting, which is a huge shame.

The album is dark, desolate, bleak and lonely but also beautiful. If this was a novel it would be ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. See 'The Bastards Have Landed' with its gently picked guitar and fragile vocals accompanied by a deep, dense, swelling guitar which slowly throbs in and out. It's difficult listening, leaving you uncomfortable and awkward, as do the lyrics 'sorry, sir, we were just trying to get home / waiter, serve us our drinks then leave us alone'. You almost feel that Logh had written an album inspired by the landscape that surrounded them - bright white snow, bare trees and long roads leading nowhere. 

It's an album that could soundtrack a walk through a cemetery, with tales of death, disaster and half exposed stories of unknown individuals and their regrets. 'Ghosts' suggests a small town and the lament of one citizen who wishes that he / she had escaped or made more of their life. It's one of the fuller compositions but still stays true to the bleakness of the album. 'In Cold Blood' (which boasts heavenly slide guitar at the beginning and apocalyptic organ that comes from nowhere to end) the title speaks for itself, 'Lookalike' hints at an unsolved murder and is darker than molasses, and 'Note On Bathroom Mirror' is a menacing song that never fully exposes the pain driving it along.

'Every Street Light' is what I imagine a broken heart to sound like. It's one of those songs that, despite the absence of lyrics, conjures up deep feelings and you wonder what kind of heartbreak / tragedy the composer must have been through to produce something so powerful.

'The Passage' veers slightly away from the formula at the start with untreated guitars but builds with layers of vocals and guitars weaving in and out of one another, until slightly overdriven guitars disturb the unchanging landscape and inject an uneasy feeling of urgency to proceedings.

The only track that comes close to failing is 'Of The Ground' which sounds like a hybrid of Interpol and Sonic Youth (from which you can see it's no slouch). Again as with 'The Bastards....' we're treated to the controlled throbbing of the guitar in the background, making it possess an ominous threat until it ends in such a way that would make Explosions proud.  
 
Delicate, ghostly and yes ETHEREAL!! It's not an album for a summer’s day picnic - you get the picture. This is an album of gentle power, beauty, light, darkness and solitude but I think its best summed up by a quote on one of their labels press releases....
 
"...as heavy as your heart may grow, the record uplifts you...not through eleven separate songs, but rather one intricate blueprint of earnest emotion...... overflowing with desperate beauty".