Listening to The Foel Tower feels like tuning a weathered old radio – you’ll be rewarded for applying patience and concentration. On this second album, experimental Bristol four-piece Quade make a virtue of the slow build; Barney Matthews’ bassy, cryptic vocals are buried beneath shivering cymbals, gut-rumbling bass and blasts of static, with most of the lyricism left to multi-instrumentalist Tom Connolly’s twisting, agonised, beatific violin.
Like their label mates Moin who describe themselves as “post-whatever”, Quade discard the classic band format for a more organic, intuitive approach. Canada Geese starts with a simple, strummed acoustic guitar and close-quarters detail: distant birdsong, the soft rattle of what could be a washing machine. This intimacy dissolves into grand, threatening post-rock when Matt Griffith’s electronics and Leo Fini’s echoing, distant drums build muscle. “Kill them all,” Matthews mumbles, barely discernible, as Connolly’s strings writhe.
