THROWING OUT THE BABY WITH THE BATHWATER

It's a good thing this was released on cd as it begins off very quietly for the first 10 minutes. If released 5 years earlier on vinyl I think I would have grabbed it from the turntable and snapped it in two, in one of my tantrums due to the clicks and pops.

What we've got here is more dark, sultry ambience from this English band who have just recently released their first album in 13 years. 'Throwing Out The Baby With The Bathwater' has been excellently produced and engineered. Great CD music.

There's not much in the way of traditional instruments used - in fact none whatsoever bar a few guitar chords towards the end of 'The End of History'. There are plenty of whines and elongated groans, interspersed with bloops and gurglings from what may be damaged minds. Contrastate have a hard to replicate feeling of ominous dread, especially when those monotonous baritone vocals start spouting out about how bad everything is.

There are lots of backward looped effects on this album which creates an effect of wooziness if you've been drinking gin (like I have).

'Extinction' literally sounds like the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 under the Duke of Medina. Sounds of snapping timber, waves and groans create a vision of something awful going down.

'Altering The Circumstances Of Human Life' thumps out some deepest coal mine throbs while high pitched voices screech away in the background. Some lyrics emerge from Jonathan Grieve who sounds seriously pissed off with life the Universe and everything before the album quickly fades and dies.

It's pretty good, atmospheric, but not brilliant.