THE BRACKISH - PACK IT IN MY LIEGE
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 place The Brackish in an exalted
league with killer axe duo outfits like Polvo (or Slayer). Control verges on
hysteria; solos sound subsumed under the tyrannical aegis of a catastrophic
weather system.
The Brackish rhythm section shines on the following
track, ‘Pinch & Roll’, with drummer Matthew Jones’ militarist snare patterns.
He and bassist Jacob Myles Tyghe lay down a form of martial bluegrass that suggests a
steampunk reconnaissance automaton patrolling in aether-powered circles. Unlike
some of the genre’s practitioners, The Brackish manage to achieve that fine balance
between the organic and the machinic exemplified by math rock’s originators
from Red-era King Crimson to Botch’s knotty rhythm-riffs.
The stylistic elements of bustling polyrhythms and
interwoven guitar riffs reach an apotheosis on album highlight ‘SIAB’. This
piece boasts unashamedly exuberant colours in contrast to the frigid
temperatures of the earlier tracks, mixing the angular pop of postpunkers XTC
with the similarly Beefheartian strains of Don Caballero. A succession of tempo
changes and metric shifts expose new facets to the guitars’ diamond surfaces.
‘Dessert for Days’ taps into the film
soundtrack sensibilities of Tortoise to conjure a sandy wilderness panorama,
glinting shafts auguring rare elements of Earth-like heaviness. A stoner doom disposition
dominates, one that might collapse under the weight of its own morosity if it
wasn’t for the inventive coiling of the dual guitar leads. ‘Prisoner’ has
initially subdued ensemble playing, gradually drawn into a dervish gyre that
brings the inexorable dramatic constructions of Godspeed! You Black Emperor or Dirty
Three at their most passionate and Romani-channeling to mind.
Concluding number ‘Blue Zombie’ opens with
wobbly aquatic textures that suggest the titular undead may be one of those
underwater varieties directed by Lucio Fulci. Cawthra captures a tone comparable
to Marc Ribot to lay down low-key jazz as charming as a song about a zombie has any
right to be. Smith joins to create dance macabre guitar patterns, a clockwork
staccato underpinning woozy, tremolo bar-augmented statements that finally
drift away in a glimmering exotica-laced finale. The peaceful shift in tone
suggests the once sombre cadaver (perhaps a victim of the opening track’s
hurricane scenario) has now become content with its floating dead status; it’s
a transformation in authorial voice from Fulci to Clive Barker, and the zombie protagonists
of the latter’s short story, ‘Scapegoats’, forever soothed by the rhythm of
tiny waves. A satisfyingly strange conclusion, both for the track and
this fine, intriguing album.
Text: (C) Copyright 2025 by Jon Kromka
The Brackish, Pack It in My Liege, is out on Pig Records and available through Bandcamp:
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