MODERN RITUALS- ‘This Is the History’
If the debut album from Modern Rituals saw them stand out in a crowd, the London-via-Bristol quartet’s follow-up finds them stand virtually on their own. They still play what is essentially four-dudes-in-a-room rock music but there’s a palpable sense throughout ‘This Is the History’ of the band’s natural urge to zig when most others would zag. Here there is acoustic menace, discordant noise, shimmering light, dark sludge, wild man yowls, sweat, grit and dust. And that’s just track one. But somehow ‘…History’ isn’t a car crash. Instead, it’s mutant pop, it’s modern art, it’s an inexplicably award-winning smile from a record only a mother should love. From the bolshy lurch of ‘The Bull Never Wins’ to the grunge guitars and gentle strings of ‘Moses’ and the melancholy hum of the title track, it’s full of songs that feel as fresh as they do familiar. And it’s brilliant.
