SHOES OFF AND CHAIRS AWAY

The album is bookended by their best songs to date. 'Always A Welcome' sounds like a slo-mo rave for spectres, chunky beats and an orchestral or organ riff pitch-shifted and saturated with effects moves like a ghost through your ears. 'Ten Years or Twenty' is simply staggering, a voyage through darkest pastoral Britain, a sinister voice promising "apples for everyone" and then what sounds like dialogue is multi-tracked and treated to such ecstatic levels that the spoken word becomes song. It's utterly captivating, a huge wave of eerie sound underpinned by chiming bells of doom and warm expansive flute. Another highlight is 'Strangers to the Music' which has a melodic faded grandeur, laughing voice echo from nowhere whilst a solemn voice invokes "all things must be as they were before" while another moans "help me". But all in all, every second is a portal. These twenty-two tracks make for a sublime and spooky trip from start to finish as orchestras, woodwind and harpsichords all get manhandled by the technologically-savvy ghosts in the machine. (Article de Jonny Mugwump sur le site The Quietus.com)