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CD
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WIW 003CD
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"Angela Valid, a band making restrained lofi garage rock with guitars, drums, electronics and violin, first met in Sheffield while studying film. Recorded live in a church hall opposite Holloway Women's Prison, it offers four tracks bringing in various influences from all sides of the experimental music spectrum. The band mixes a traditional guitar/drums set-up with raucous electronics in a way that stays true and respectful to both the past and to pushing the boundaries of modern improv. Ambitiously for their first EP, the band craft a complete and sophisticated debut that hints at everyone from early Tortoise (notably on the penultimate track, 'Ocean Ceiling') to the masters of noise themselves, Wolf Eyes. On the opening track, from which the EP takes its name, the band is joined by Pedro's James Rutledge for the release's defining moment. Sounding comparable to the Constellation label, only raised on a diet of free-jazz instead of post-rock, it retains a sense of purpose and direction that is often lost in improved music akin to Angela Valid's. You sense that they value texture with equal importance to rhythm and melody as the song reaches a half-way point; the drums begin to fragment as waves of melodicas and electronics ebb and flow around a layer of guitar feedback which finally brings the song to a close. Next up comes 'Terry's Incantation' with a sharper and more direct slant on jazzy spontaneity. Electronics take the lead here, with the drummer sharing space with broken drum-machines and pounding, distorted synths. After just over six minutes the song fades away, leaving the listener with just a taste of a session in which these boys thrived. This Book's On Fire is an accomplished and fully-realized take on improvised music that borrows from a range of musical sources while still creating something very much current and forward-thinking."
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