Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Trust is a hard thing to come by these days



Here we have the video for the brand new Gravenhurst single 'Trust'. This is the first chance to check out the direction of the band's fourth album (the third to be released by Warp Records), 'The Western Lands'. The album is the follow-up to 2005's morbid and macabre 'Fires In Distant Buildings'. If 'Trust' is anything to go by, it appears the bleak mood has lifted slightly. Though still dark and twisted, this is a love song. Well, of sorts, as the line "She will suck you in, she will cut you up, she will throw you away" testifies. This is brilliant, fuzzy guitar pop, reminiscent of classic 1988-era Creation records. There's a bit of House of Love, JAMC and even My Bloody Valentine in there, with a droning Velvets guitar line, and main man Nick Talbot's vulnerable, detached vocals. The video itself is a nice mix of animation and live band performance. Not sure when the album is released, but 'Trust' is available as a digital download from bleep.com on July 17th 2007, and a limited 7" is out on 30th July 2007. I'm expecting great things, and may even have an exclusive track for you at some point over the next few weeks.



I've been a huge Gravenhurst fan for a while now. I kind of sneaked in through the backdoor as I first came across Nick Talbot through his work with the horrortronica outfit Bronnt Industries Kapital. I saw them play a hideously disturbing set in the Blackout tent at the Ashton Court Festival in 2003. Once I had stopped shaking, I tracked down a BIK 7" on Silent Age and from here, I found Gravenhurst, named after a song by David Pajo. I'll leave you with the epic title track from the Gravenhurst mini-album 'Black Holes in the Sand', which came out on Warp in 2004, and featured six tracks of intense, sonic folk-influenced murder ballads, including a wonderful cover of 'Diane' by Hüsker Dü.

Gravenhurst - Black Holes In The Sand

Gravenhurst are performing at this year's Ashton Court Festival - this Saturday (14th July 2007) in fact, so try and catch them if you can. The Fall are headlining and Mad Professor is also playing! All the info you need is here.

Buy Gravenhurst from Norman Records
Gravenhurst website
Gravenhurst My Space
Gravenhurst discography

Joe.