This is a bit of strange – but very good.
Not sure if this band have any connection with Glasgow at all but their name does (ok so it is a fairly well-known bit of medical terminology, but ripe for abuse, as it were). So this is their album, first track ‘Sonda’ is an instrumental, very pushing and somewhat Mogwai-ish (is this an adjective?) – very good indeed. With a timeout and back into it around two thirds through, and some extreme chord changes at the end – impressed!
The album has seven tracks, and according to the press release is by two Polish brothers now living in Frankfurt, classically trained. The second track ‘Southern Crosses’ does some serious damage with feedback, punching drums and those chord changes, no really, this has to be the EU-approved Mogwai, and BM is not saying this lightly…
So by track three (‘Southern Washes’) there are still no vocals so this looks like an instrumental band, nothing wrong with that… another amazing sequence of chord changes, themes, strums and instrumental kicks, like a volcano ready to erupt at any time. In these hardened times and in the depths of the cruelest month BM has to say it is heartening to make new discoveries, and will be getting in touch with these guys, we demand a Glasgow gig, like now!
‘Venice Calling’ is another belter, sounding more like Outblinker (how do you like that? check them oot!) – uptempo, quite catchy really, but with some further menaces, god this is wonderful, another revelation…
‘Ghost Not Found’ is another riffage-heavy, synth-soaked smoky sheen of noise, sorry BM is havering noo, my spellcheck fucking hated that word, can I have a Scottish spellcheck or this that too insular? This is too much, the playing, the arrangements, good grief…
Track 6 ‘Silent Bird’ sounds like a merciful relief from all that noise but again those pesky instruments kick in with some stupidly catchy riffs…
Last track is ‘Birthland’ could be a reflective conclusion, but no – they just let rip yet again, there is no let-up, from echoey starts it becomes a monster, it does not take much really but it does take bothering to do it, the detail, the bruised limbs and fingers, just to turn an aspiration into something that some stupid reviewer several cities away is really moved by – so thankyou Glasgow Coma Scale, there will be further enquiries…