Witching Waves - Concrete (Soft Power)

I knew Mark Jasper when he had nothing. Well, that's a bit of a fib. I sort of knew of Mark Jasper through other people when he worked at the local indie cinema in Nottingham, which I won't name because they have enough money and the lager in their bar is way overpriced.

I digress. Mark has moved to London (another fallen comrade) and teamed up with Emma Wigham to form Witching Waves. They have a new cassette-only (grrr!) release out on the excellent Soft Power Recordings, and mighty doesn't come close to it.

There's only two of them (you might've guessed that by now), and it's all the better for it. Remember that golden period for The Fall when Brix first came along and added some pop nouse to proceedings? That's sort of what these two songs remind me of.

The title track is the perfect downbeat torch song - all scratchy guitars and Woolworths drum kit. It's a kind of backward, twisted nursery rhyme of a song that is both threatening and so very, very sad. It's wonderful.

Back at the ranch, and 'Chain of Command' takes a more traditional route to your heart, with its snake-like guitar line and primal drums. I think you might want to call this beguiling, before it explodes into a lo-fi rocker. Perhaps less instant than 'Concrete', it nevertheless demands your immediate attention.

Get yourselves over to Soft Power and grab this whilst you can. There are only 100 copies - don't faff.