CD Review: Borders Breach

(Review by Russell).

Borders the new album from Breach is like a teasing firework - lit, ready to explode. The beauty of it is it never quite goes BANG! The trio fizzes along, engaged in an exercise of   collective restraint and they succeed in some style.
In concert guitarist Graeme Stephen sits down to play - not for him the axe man pose - and it is likely that the recording of this new release saw him seated alongside Paul Harrison (organ and electronics) and Chris Wallace (drums and percussion). The trio of ex-pat Canadian Wallace (the man of the thousand yard stare), Englishman Harrison and Stephen work through eight compositions (three written by Wallace, four by Harrison and one traditional Macedonian folk melody arranged by Stephen). The Stephen arrangement of Nakedonsko opens the album with no little humour. Subsequent tunes are hewn from a darker seam, the groove decidedly down beat, subverted by a retro vibe. Harrison tips his hat at the Hammond masters of an earlier generation, threatens to go leftfield, thinks better of it and falls in line. Wallace’s Judgement swings effortlessly as Stephen’s guitar and (minimal) electronics sprawl across the landscape (a landscape populated by the ghosts of Gary Boyle’s Isotope, Joe Morris’ decidedly over the border leftfield sound and Celtic compatriot Mark McKnight). The eponymous Borders (comp. Harrison) features the propulsive drumming of Wallace and Harrison is let loose on Harumph (comp. Wallace). Breach can be heard in concert on Thursday November 8 at the Central Bar in Gateshead.

The CD Borders (BREACHCD02) is out now.

Russell