Reigns - The House on the Causeway

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 2 / 3 / 2009

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Review

I first encountered Reigns four years ago, when their debut album had been released. Since then, I have obviously been asleep on the job, because the release of a second album has been and gone without my noticing. Now onto their third, the West country based brothers Tim and Roo Farthing (one of whom has played regularly with PJ Harvey’s band) continue their dreamy post rock/folk mergers to welcome effect. Or at least, most of the time they do. On the occasions when the pair’s obvious musical abilities are turned to pastoral soundscapes, they never fail to impress. There are moments on this album, especially the piano-based ‘Vaulted’ when Reigns make that tricky task, -producing high quality ambient post-rock which entertains the listener and avoids sounding like the test case in an academic aural experiment - sound easy. Unfortunately, they seem to have decided to embellish this not inconsiderable skill with spoken word pieces that are obviously intended to add to the mystique. Unfortunately, the clumsy trip-hop of ‘Crex, Crex, Crex’ only adds embarrassment to what would otherwise have been a magical album.

Track Listing:-

1 (Frontplate)
2 Bad Slate
3 Everything Beyond These Walls Has Been Razed
4 Mirrors At Night
5 Crex, Crex, Crex
6 Vaulted
7 Mab Crease
8 Take It Down
9 Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen
10 The Black Cramp
11 (Endplate)

Label Links:-

http://www.monotremerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MonotremeReco
https://twitter.com/Monotreme_Recds
https://www.youtube.com/user/monotreme