"Beyond the dirty window there's a curios flame
In the dark heart of Hinterland that keeps on calling me"
In the dark heart of Hinterland that keeps on calling me"
With her second album for Warp Julie Campbell has delivered a mesmerising and hypnotic record that fuses industrial Manchester with motorised Michigan. This is a very architectural album, literally and metaphotically. From the initial recordings in her home studio in a towerblock - aptly called Concrete Retreat - she's piled layers and layers of analogue recordings, physically building the tracks up. And the titles - 'Bunkerpop', 'Hinterland', 'Mortar Remembers You', '(I Can See) Landscapes', 'Into The Cave' - all point towards an overall feeling of bleakness both within and outside of the environment. In some ways it's a record that's entombed in concrete, and you're not really sure whether it's accepted its fate or is trying to break free.
Put your headphones in and you'll hear a crisp, at times almost brutal sound as the layers of synths, live percussion and analog sounds compete for space in your head. But this is a record that works equally well from a set of speakers - the infectious grooves that underpin a lot of the tracks will definitely make you want to move your feat.
Musically there's a whole host of influences on display, from Liquid Liquid to Cabaret Voltaire to LCD Soundsystem to A Certain Ratio and maybe even The Fall. And although it's a record that maybe could've been made in Berlin or Detroit you can feel Manchester at its heart.
Put your headphones in and you'll hear a crisp, at times almost brutal sound as the layers of synths, live percussion and analog sounds compete for space in your head. But this is a record that works equally well from a set of speakers - the infectious grooves that underpin a lot of the tracks will definitely make you want to move your feat.
Musically there's a whole host of influences on display, from Liquid Liquid to Cabaret Voltaire to LCD Soundsystem to A Certain Ratio and maybe even The Fall. And although it's a record that maybe could've been made in Berlin or Detroit you can feel Manchester at its heart.
"Flee to the outskirts, the ground is crumbling,
The sky is falling"
