Album Review;

The Macclesfield quintet have been battling stigma’s in the independent music scene for a while now, over four years to be exact. In that time they have released 3 EP’s and 8 singles. And now, they have finally revealed their highly anticipated debut album, Caught in the Strange. The album showcases a deep study of art-rock and electronica formations, threaded between new classical down-tones. Caught in the Strange is a cleverly crafted album that demonstrates the band’s capabilities of flowing between genres and drawing influences from various themes living in music’s history.

They’ve widely explored the breadths of post-rock, shoe-gaze and psychedelia, drenching immersive, soothing, less complex lower tones into their compositions. They have experimented with a diverse range of genre’s to create their own signature sound, which is still unobtainable to one set style. They’re sound is perimeteral, intricate and emotional.

When they released ‘What I Saw’ as a single towards the back end of last year, they told NME,

“We’ve been experimenting with that expansive, post-rock-influenced sound for a while now and everything feels a bit bigger each time.”

‘What I Saw’ is one of the most complex, sophisticated, ‘heart-string tugging and glistening’ tracks from the album, I’d say it’s definitely a reflection of their best work, it ties together their 2014 softer sound with their further experimentation of new psychedelia noise featuring synth overlays and distorted vocals, weaved together with defying crescendo’s. ‘What I Saw’ only features on the deluxe version, they obviously wanted to create space on the main play for new material, however this stand-out track ties the album off perfectly.

Predictable influences include Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Bowie, The Zombies and maybe Iggy Pop and The Who? R.G successfully draw their inspiration from a history of music as well as modern cultures and social movements.

The album art portray’s an enchanting dreamscape, the illustration depicts an out of the ordinary land, that’s somewhat alien but looks comparatively pleasant and mind consoling. It paint’s an imaginative picture in the listeners head, of what it might be like to live on a mystical, strange planet, or what might be held in the obscurity of the record.

Track by Track:

Higher Love — Opening the album strongly and assertively, summarizing their band ethos and sound and preparing you for an exploratory musical journey. Higher Love lays down a graceful tempo with a gentle sound, leading to moderately higher and heavier expressions that intrigues it’s listener, ready for the crashing intro of the next track.

Seems Like A Good Time — My personal favourite track in the album, it was previously released as a single in 2015 and definitely showcases a higher point on the album, demonstrating vast creativity and intricate composition. It’s one of the harder, rockier, more powerful tunes on the record.

Nag Champa — 1:19 of mostly a soft, hazy, psychedelic instrumental. Nag Champa is an ancient incense fragrance that gained global popularity in the 1960’s during the hippie counter culture movement. The name perfectly symbolises the purpose of the track, and the atmosphere that RG are creating. It seems like they created space at this point, to immerse their audience in preparation for the next tracks.

Caught In The Strange — Offers an avant-guarde direction to the album, it’s raw, it’s honest, and the lyrics are simple and repetitive yet really effective over the use of the instrumentals. This track defines Racing Glaciers’ soundscape of ambience through to mature math level rock.

Sertraline — Named after an antidepressant that affects chemicals in the brain that cause depression, panic and anxiety. This track offers a slow tone with underlying lyrics that suggest the band’s dark paths. Maybe relating to the bands personal struggles with their sanity, or mental well being. Sertraline offers guidance and awareness of self barriers and hard emotions. It’s beautifully composed and is arguably the best track on the album, and predictably the track that will gain the most popularity.

Naked We Rise — Starting with gritty percussion before introducing sublime harmonies, this track experiments with distortions and layering of vocals and guitars. The gradual crashing crescendo’s seem to work best on the composition of this track over any other. The traditional use of guitar and bass in companion with the underlying synths and drum sequence draw a magnificent close to the track. No gradual fade out.

Carry It On — A re-record of the single off of their 2014’s ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ EP. I reckon they could’ve picked a stronger track to re-release through the album, and you could argue that the 2016 does not offer quite the same standard in quality and execution on recording. The vocal’s don’t seem to be as strong as they have consistently been through the record until now and the crescendo’s don’t seem to crash in the way that you would expect. This track reflects slightly more classical referencing and obvious influential pathways, it sounds more like what you would typically expect from this type of band, and seems less complexly composed than every other track, however that’s not to doubt it’s enthusiastic guitar sequence. It’s catchy, tuneful and drenched in favour-ability.

Patient Man — Offers a more traditional This track was released a few weeks before the album as a little teaser, meaning this track summarises the signature impression that RG want us to have. It’s gentle, offers soft tones with beautiful, raw, poetic lyrics.

Hey Man, What’s the rush? — Another latter psychedelic infused pause on the album. The name suggests that it’s about slowing down, taking time and making space in your mind, maybe related to the importance of meditation?

Samadhi (So Far Away) — Offers a gradual build up towards soft underlayed lyrics that pick up in tempo as drums get louder and more complex. This track keeps you on your toes, climaxing into impressive instrumentals. Samadhi means ‘an intense state of concentration achieved through meditation.’ — which suggests that RG wanted to captivate their listeners through this eerie, yet charming composition.

Young & Unsure — A more straight talking track about childhood, growing up and making mistakes. This track is honest and relatable to most of their audience, whereas tracks like Sertraline, will only offer a close relationship with a select few listeners. Young & Unsure exposes Tim Monoghan’s vocals more freely, with less overlay and production clouding over. I love that the main play ends with this raw, colder, kind of brutal track.

Themes that exist through the album, mindfulness, psychedelic experimentation, human connection and emotion, and tragedy.

Caught in the Strange successfully compiles the band’s best work, the only thing missing is more use of classical percussion as seen in their earlier work like South and First Light, that proved popular with their audience (and R1’s Annie Mac). It is inevitable that the band has developed in uniqueness, moving away from traditional compositions and into intertwining synths, pedals and keyboards. It’s evident that years of blood, sweat and tears have gone into the making of this record, the outcome showcases RG at their prime, and it definitely worth the least of 46 minutes of your time.

Favourite tracks: Seem’s Like A Good Time, Sertraline and Young & Unsure.