On their first two albums, Scotland’s Aereogramme provided shoegaze/prog fans with a swampload of shin-deep density and a cavern of howling volume to happily navigate. That pattern seemed secure with their pair of releases last year, the Isis collaboration In the Fishtank and the Seclusion albumette, more than half of which featured the band’s signature sonic mayhem. In the interim, songwriter/vocalist Craig B. suffered a severe throat infection that silenced him for weeks just as he was shaping material for the third full Aereogramme album. B.’s creative response to his mute isolation was the lush and lovely quietude of My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go, a marked departure from the sophisticated prog/metal of their previous outings. But just because Aereogramme has dialed back the volume, don’t conclude that the band has gone soft somehow. Songs like “Living Backwards” and “Trenches” are potent reminders that Aereogramme has an amazing facility for weaving epic cinematic vistas into powerfully direct sonic undercurrents, deftly moving from serene contemplation to sweeping and passionate crescendos with a beautiful and patient deliberation. If My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go is a diversion, then Aereogramme has created a gorgeous rest stop on the way to their next slagnum opus, but if the album is a direction, then the band has offered up an effective blueprint for a diverse and evocative future.
~ Brian Baker
Buy Album from CD Universe
