Rome Pays Off -‘There’s No Simple Explanation.’ (Trace)
Mark Beazley and Crawford Blair were original members of Rothko, the three piece act who consisted of three bass players. Rothko finally called it a day last year, and this is the pair’s first recordings togetehr since 2000.
Like ¡Forward, Russia! used to do, their songs all take numbers. Not that they appear in that order in the album, but they are named in the order that they were recorded.So there are twelve songs on this album, but for whatever reason, there is no Song Two or Song Twelve. ‘Song Eleven’ opens the album and ‘Song Eight’ closes it. Got that? Good!
The album is gorgeous, beautifully atmospheric and strikes the right balance between experimental and accessability. Each track stands alone in its own right, but it adds up to one very impressive whole. Ifyou never heard Rothko, then at a push parallels might be drawn with parts of the work of Mogwai and Om. However, this essentially stands alone on its’ own terms and is all the better for it.
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There’s No Simple Explanation is out now on Trace.