It took label boss Matthew Young five years to 'prise' this album out of Glasgow folk poets THE SAVINGS AND LOAN. Judging by the excruciatingly slow pace at which these songs unfold, you have to agree that this is a hell of a result!
Religiously themed in the main (as suggested by the album's title and cover artwork), these dangerously eccentric and often legless songs from former De Rosa keyboardist Andy Bush and singer/songwriter Martin Donnelly lurch along with as much dragging of the feet as possible.
The stripped-to-the-core opening track 'Swallows' is followed by the piano-echoing mogadon moroseness of 'Lit Out' as the slow-motion darkness unfolds to the tap of distant drumsticks
Although the stakes are upped when an alcoholic recital gives way to the near sea-shanty of 'Catholic Boys In The Rain', a true measure of the extreme levels of despondency that this duo attain can be taken from their ultra-decelerated zopiclone version of the usually upbeat folk standard 'The Star Of The County Down'.
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Pound for pound, this is no soundtrack to a game of musical chairs - indeed 'Today I Need Light' makes Scott Walker's solo work seem like one long carnival calypso in comparison.
Any faster and many of these songs would stop: but not even the painfully sluggish pace can detract from the frequently high songwriting quality.
Song By Toad Records online
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