“Bosh!”. Really its an unassuming, sort of funny title. A title that barely hints at the meteoric force that this album hits you with as soon as you press play (well, more or less). If by this point your in need of an introduction to Cleft then you might have been stuck in a game of Jumanjii for the last couple of years. Nevertheless, Cleft are an instrumental, or turbo-prog, rock band from Manchester with Dan providing all kinds of guitar awesomeness and John providing stupefying drum acrobatics. Yep, there’s just two of them.
Cleft have been tinkering with their ‘turbo-prog’ machine for a few years now and after two tempting E.P releases they’ve decided to grace us with a full length effort, for which they’ve turned the volume up quite a bit. So yes, it is louder, or I’m just playing it at a higher volume. Either way, the music hasn’t lost the prettier, lighter touches I found so intriguing on the last E.P, Whale Bone. The band hasn’t had much cause to change their sound dramatically, there’s just more of everything, more epic riffs, more apocalyptic drum fills, more vertigo-inducing changes of pace. Guitarist Dan really has spent time learning how to get the most disjointed sounds out of his instrument: lovely, soothing jangly sounds and frightening, cataclysmic sounds. As expected drummer John puts in a stellar performance as well, each track is rammed with his tricky thrashings.
There’s some human touches on this record, though, that make listening a much more warming experience than it was on the previous E.P. The band aren’t adverse to a bit of irony, for an example take the opening twenty-odd seconds to track eight, Buffet Remorse, these acoustic rhythms are strictly NOT Cleft and when the already familiar guitar kicks in, it is rather funny. Cleft obviously feel confident enough in their identity to attempt moments of self-parody like this. Then there’s the collaboration with Matt Franklin (of Halfling’s Leaf fame), who always sounds slightly demonic and very cool. Apart from all these, single “Hostage”, “Alec Baldwin’s Hair” and “12 Second Panda” are all highlights.
Bosh! will be released on the 10th February 2014 in just about any format you could desire. I suggest you begin training your ear holes to receive those invigorating sounds. To whet your appetite, here is a video of the band performing single “Hostage”: http://is.gd/hostage
Connor May
Cleft have been tinkering with their ‘turbo-prog’ machine for a few years now and after two tempting E.P releases they’ve decided to grace us with a full length effort, for which they’ve turned the volume up quite a bit. So yes, it is louder, or I’m just playing it at a higher volume. Either way, the music hasn’t lost the prettier, lighter touches I found so intriguing on the last E.P, Whale Bone. The band hasn’t had much cause to change their sound dramatically, there’s just more of everything, more epic riffs, more apocalyptic drum fills, more vertigo-inducing changes of pace. Guitarist Dan really has spent time learning how to get the most disjointed sounds out of his instrument: lovely, soothing jangly sounds and frightening, cataclysmic sounds. As expected drummer John puts in a stellar performance as well, each track is rammed with his tricky thrashings.
There’s some human touches on this record, though, that make listening a much more warming experience than it was on the previous E.P. The band aren’t adverse to a bit of irony, for an example take the opening twenty-odd seconds to track eight, Buffet Remorse, these acoustic rhythms are strictly NOT Cleft and when the already familiar guitar kicks in, it is rather funny. Cleft obviously feel confident enough in their identity to attempt moments of self-parody like this. Then there’s the collaboration with Matt Franklin (of Halfling’s Leaf fame), who always sounds slightly demonic and very cool. Apart from all these, single “Hostage”, “Alec Baldwin’s Hair” and “12 Second Panda” are all highlights.
Bosh! will be released on the 10th February 2014 in just about any format you could desire. I suggest you begin training your ear holes to receive those invigorating sounds. To whet your appetite, here is a video of the band performing single “Hostage”: http://is.gd/hostage
Connor May