by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The mysterious Craven Faults knows exactly how to tell a story. The accompanying text for the four track album Bounds does just that, describing the third album as “another 37-minute journey through Northern England via a lifetime obsessing at the fringes of popular culture. New details and perspectives. Dusk gathering.

There’s some discussion over where this journey begins. Certainly, less than twenty miles north-west of the city, but possibly much closer. Ironic given we’re searching for a distance marker. A gritstone pillar is the prime candidate – destroyed by lightning almost 200 years ago, and then rebuilt a quarter of a mile away. A curiosity. Many a journey starts here these days, as we take flight and head further north and west. The tarn was drained in 1940 to protect critical infrastructure. We leave the sounds of heavy industry behind us to float weightlessly over the moors.

We pick up pace and hit those levels of repetition engineered to the highest standards in Düsseldorf and Köln, 1971. A gift to the world. At this point the altitude is no longer clear; there’s no sense of scale. We could be a matter of inches from the ground, but the patterns are the same. Eventually we arrive at a hillside with no defined boundaries. The limestone pavement is visible in parts, and snaps us into focus once again.

It’s a little way east for our next stop, very close to where the journey began on Standers. Documents from 1651 suggest an arbitrary drawing of boundaries, the distribution of power and wealth set down in pen and ink and then passed down through generations. We beat a path around the perimeter. The divides still exist although the crab apple tree is long gone. Melodies give way to bent notes and dissonance.

We take a circuitous trip to Hamburg and Rome for filming between February 11 and April 23, 1972. A slower pace. Less structure, but emotive, evolving. The master touch, indeed. One final job before retiring and living off the land for the next 373 years.”

What’s the music like?

Reading the text as an accompaniment to the music is very helpful, for it puts this slow-moving discourse in perspective. Yet in spite of its quite restrained nature, and its restricted tempo, Craven Faults secures music of stature, laden with atmospheric touches.

The four tracks unfold effortlessly, but not without tension, with each prompted by a sonorous, slow-moving bass. Groups Hollows moves at two speeds simultaneously, with the slow tread of the bass against a quicker rhythmic profile, and a twinkling loop adding colour up top.

Meanwhile the crossrhythms of Lampes Mosse create an intriguing picture before the epic, sprawling Waste & Demesne which casts a spell – again slow movement against quicker, before the elegant line at the top is left in isolation.

Does it all work?

It does. Craven Faults’ music has a timeless quality to it, and provided you experience the album with all frequencies available – especially bass! – you’ll get the most immersive experience from Bounds.

Is it recommended?

Yes, enthusiastically. Craven Faults are one of those outfits who have mastered the art of ‘less is more’, and this quartet of captivating tableaus tells as vivid a story as the text accompanying it. Essential listening for those who have already latched on to their talents.

For fans of… Luke Abbott, Boards Of Canada, Mogwai, Aphex Twin

Listen & Buy

Published post no.2,356 – Friday 8 November 2024