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Ants From Up There
Ants From Up There in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $16.99
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Size: CD
When London combo
Black Country, New Road
debuted in February 2021, comparisons to bands like
the Fall
and
Slint
were feverishly applied to their intriguing tangle of post-rock sprawl and jazz-folk intimacy, which resembled little else on the contemporary indie landscape. The seven-piece band even notched a Mercury Prize nomination for their effort while somehow managing to produce a follow-up exactly one year later.
Ants from Up There
is that record, and it's an impressive one, rife with forward momentum but preempted by its own self-mythology. While the critical focus ought to remain solely on the record, it is worth noting that frontman and creative lynchpin
Isaac Wood
suddenly quit the group just days before its release. For a band so preloaded with hype, such an attention-grabbing move might seem like a brilliant PR stunt if it weren't so sad.
is a significant leap forward for the group, with a more nuanced feel, better songwriting, and all sorts of little creative choices that keep it consistently interesting. While jagged, wryly delivered post-punk is having a heyday in the U.K., it's been a while since indie rock went in the direction
Black Country
is taking it. Tonally, they share some elements with contemporaries like
Squid
or their pals
Black Midi
, but their particular mash-up of ideas harkens back to certain corners of the 1990s when avant jazz collided with smartly written guitar pop and world music. With its sprightly fiddle, sax, and piano figures, the ecstatic "Chaos Space Marine" feels like something that could have appeared on an old
Rykodisc
compilation. The eclectic "Concorde" is somehow cozy and sprawling in equal measure, with
Wood
doling out his impressionistic verses over the band's increasingly melodic arrangements. Songs drift into long, lonesome passages based around a single repeating motif only to combust in a caterwauling flare of ragged glory. The band seems to play as a single multi-armed unit, and yet
's tortured voice is at the very center of their palette.
made a strong impression on their debut, but things become much more interesting with
. Given the drama surrounding its release, the question now becomes: can the group survive it? ~ Timothy Monger
Black Country, New Road
debuted in February 2021, comparisons to bands like
the Fall
and
Slint
were feverishly applied to their intriguing tangle of post-rock sprawl and jazz-folk intimacy, which resembled little else on the contemporary indie landscape. The seven-piece band even notched a Mercury Prize nomination for their effort while somehow managing to produce a follow-up exactly one year later.
Ants from Up There
is that record, and it's an impressive one, rife with forward momentum but preempted by its own self-mythology. While the critical focus ought to remain solely on the record, it is worth noting that frontman and creative lynchpin
Isaac Wood
suddenly quit the group just days before its release. For a band so preloaded with hype, such an attention-grabbing move might seem like a brilliant PR stunt if it weren't so sad.
is a significant leap forward for the group, with a more nuanced feel, better songwriting, and all sorts of little creative choices that keep it consistently interesting. While jagged, wryly delivered post-punk is having a heyday in the U.K., it's been a while since indie rock went in the direction
Black Country
is taking it. Tonally, they share some elements with contemporaries like
Squid
or their pals
Black Midi
, but their particular mash-up of ideas harkens back to certain corners of the 1990s when avant jazz collided with smartly written guitar pop and world music. With its sprightly fiddle, sax, and piano figures, the ecstatic "Chaos Space Marine" feels like something that could have appeared on an old
Rykodisc
compilation. The eclectic "Concorde" is somehow cozy and sprawling in equal measure, with
Wood
doling out his impressionistic verses over the band's increasingly melodic arrangements. Songs drift into long, lonesome passages based around a single repeating motif only to combust in a caterwauling flare of ragged glory. The band seems to play as a single multi-armed unit, and yet
's tortured voice is at the very center of their palette.
made a strong impression on their debut, but things become much more interesting with
. Given the drama surrounding its release, the question now becomes: can the group survive it? ~ Timothy Monger
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