Monday 2 February 2015

SPURIOUS TRANSIENTS – PORTRAITS OF A LANDSCAPE (CD, D/L)


This is the first full album from SPURIOUS TRANSIENTS AKA multi-Instrumentalist Gavin Lloyd Wilson. Taking inspiration from the area around his home in south west Wales, Portraits Of A Landscape is predominantly instrumental and split into two distinctive sections, one being shaped by the industrial landscape of south Wales, the second being influenced by the countryside that surrounds it.

The first section is titled ‘The Industrial Landscape’ and it is essentially minimal industrial soundscapes mixed with more up tempo krautrock influenced tracks. There are some interesting ideas here but nothing really special…….if you like the stranger end of Mute Records or the releases from Ghost Box there may be something here for you. However the more psychedelic second section of Portraits Of A Landscape is superb and would work as a brilliant standalone EP regardless. Titled ‘In Harmony With Nature’, there are four tracks that combine sitar drones, soaring EBow guitars, sweeping synths, minimal electronics and found sounds/field recordings to excellent effect moving the record towards the more experimental/ambient sounds of Fripp & Eno, Michael Brook and many of the artists on the Portland based Darkwave, Ambient and Shoegaze label ProjektRecords. Built on a foundation of drones and tablas, sounding like a psychedelicized Bat For Lashes, ‘Under The Same Stars’ features singer/composer GHOST DUST (one of the guises of Jasmine Eden, currently making music as THISTLE THISTLES) while two tracks heavily influenced by kosmische musik  ‘The Parrog’ and ‘Glacial Express Way’ merge together as a 10 minutes of sweeping synths, swirling EBow guitars and sparse percussion. The final track on the album, ‘Poppit’, is a beautiful piece of music which brings to mind the late Gravenhurst’s more experimental excursions………underneath slight, eastern-flavoured guitar picking runs a field recording of waves lapping upon the shore.

This is a promising full debut from SPURIOUS TRANSIENTS and worth checking out if only for the more psych tinged, ambient/cosmic side of Portraits Of A Landscape…….play the last four tracks either stupid loud or listen to them on headphones, they sound great. Available as either a CD or Download from the SPURIOUS TRANSIENTS Bandcamp page….Check it out here https://spurioustransients.bandcamp.com


THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN

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