Aeternal Flux II

  Pack It in My Liege , the sixth album by Bristol-based avant-rockers The Brackish, exhibits the latest iteration of the multifarious instrumental rock first assayed on their 2014 debut Big Guys . In contrast with the freeform passages of Donor Zone , this Pig Records release demonstrates greater compositional rigour and the tightening of a quartet approaching reinforced steel levels of sturdiness. Brackish sound is ultimately a pliable material; if this release favours drones over jams, the next may see another reversal in polarity. Pack It in My Liege tilts the balance towards control, but with no loss in creative boldness. It features six tracks like surrealist paintings: epic yet contained visions of adventurous weirdness. ‘Welter’ opens proceedings in a suitably stormy fashion, operating from some nexus spanning post-hardcore, neo-psych and math rock and conjuring shades of acts as disparate as Sonic Youth and This Heat. The twin guitars of Luke Cawthra and Neil Smith ...

    Sliders is a new Bristol-based group that teams guitarist Neil Smith of The Brackish with Chris Langton on drums, Harry Stoneham on bass, and Dan Moore on keyboards. Like The Brackish, Sliders use jazz – in both its compositional and improvisatory faculties – as a catalytic aesthetic to merge various categories of experimental rock (psych, prog, kraut, postpunk, post-rock). Both are instrumental groups that shift between and intermingle heavy and playful tones; there’s an enviable balance that allows grittier, shadier textures to keep the imagination engaged before light-heartedness drifts into mere effervescence. If there’s a significant difference, Sliders lean more into improvisational looseness on their self-titled debut album than the math rock-ish complexity The Brackish can indulge in. Moore is a member of the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble. His Moog Sub 37 Paraphonic synth lines on opener ‘Jumper’ – drifting in and out of the jagged intervals of Smith’s arpeggios – evo...