LONESOME WAILS FROM THE WEEPING WILLOW

I may as well admit from the start that Post Rock is not my cuppa tea. I normally stay well clear, but the title of this disc appealed. Sometimes you have to take a chance on something different. And boy, this sure is ummm.......different.

I knew nothing whatsoever about this band and had no idea what to expect. Indeed, hard as it may seem, I actually approached this record with an open mind.

Maybe I'm missing something or maybe my copy has been used as a frisbee by the post service, but the first cut, 'Before the Rooster Crows' sounds like a cross between the Baron Knights and something Black Oak rejected after a night on the town.

I honestly thought it was some kind of joke. Sometimes you get opening numbers like this on albums.....

Unfortunately the next track 'Blackbird Languid sky' was similar and the third 'Holes II - High River Dirge' was exactly that : a dirge in the true sense of the term. The rest of the album continues in the same vein. I can vaguely detect some sort of semblance of a melody on 'Last Breath' and Last Requim' is almost listenable......but I can find nothing to commend at all.

Remember those toy plastic play guitars you used to get in Woolies years ago ? One of these seems to be lead. My mother used to give me saucepans and old cake tins to bang on with a wooden spoon when I was a kid. These guys have resurrected those too. Add somebody mumbling down a megaphone the wrong way and record the whole thing in a public phone box with an old tape recorder then you have Across Tundra.

How on earth this drivel made it onto CD is beyond me. I know I could never be accused of having an eclectic taste in terms of music, but this pitiful tripe is so appaulingly dire is can barely be called music. I even thought maybe I had a faulty copy and had to check with the sample on the site. No, apparently this is what they are meant to sound like. This is certainly 'very challenging' music, if your bag is off key tinny instruments, garbled vocals and tin pot drums all mixed by our builder and recorded at Steptoe and Sons.

No doubt I'll get hammered by Across Tundra fans (assuming they have one) but I can't for the life of me find anything to appeal on this disc. I suppose if I disliked the neighbours next door this horror at full volume would be ideal.

It will be interesting to see if there is any conflicting reviews on this album, maybe I've missed the point. Anyway, the covers a nice shade of purple.