★★★★
Oh, give me a break, Dumbsaint. If I wanted to listen to creepy film music, I’d pull out my copy of the TwinPeaks soundtrack or punch “Japanese horror records” into Google, and who has time for that?
Actually, I do and then some, because this second album from the instrumental post-rock/metal trio is another monumental piece of cinematic songwriting easily deserving of an evening’s dissection behind drawn curtains.
Prepare to be at least a little unsettled if you do so, though. The Sydney band has spent 18 months putting together this ten-track record and its accompanying 60-minute film depicting the lives of the residents of a single street, and not everything is tickety-boo at number 32, as the video for ‘Cold Call’ reveals.
Undoubtedly heavier than those on the band’s 2012 debut, these tracks come at you like Sleepmakeswaves’ sinister cousin from the other side of the tracks. Dark, ominous and masterfully constructed, the album’s journey begins with the crushing ‘Low Visions’, and the brutality doesn’t let up until third track ‘Love Thy Neighbour’. At ten minutes, ‘Long Dissolve/Temps Mort’ is the band’s ‘Marquee Moon’; soft and ambling before erupting into life.
There aren’t many bands doing what Dumbsaint do, and very few to this standard. This album is dark, challenging, and very bloody good.
Dumbsaint’s Panorama, In Ten Pieces is out through Art As Catharsis/Bird’s Robe.
