Hello again!
Here we are looking enigmatic:
The crowd went completely mad for Future Islands, and when a "birthday boy" was prompted to come up and dance on stage there was a tidal wave of people that wanted to join in too. William's face says it all.
Our friend Melissa managed to catch this on her mobile (no sound).
I don't know what was going on here.
Here we are selling merch. And here is Christian, who was driving the van, selling merch way better than us, and somehow finding time to do the sound for Future Islands and manage the tour. He also has a nifty little bobble hat.
After the show there was a little, ahem, party. All of us except William bailed on partying through to dawn and we are went back to someone's place to crash. William and our host Gareth managed to stay up until the wee hours, like proper troopers. Next day we were up early as we wanted to go to see a bit more Glasgow. We were entertained by the Scottish wildlife exhibit in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum:
There was also a haggis, on the basis that many people believe the haggis is a small animal. Sadly the haggis in question had been removed for conservation work, so I couldn't take a snap of it.
We had a beautiful drive through Border country to Newcastle. We think we saw Hadrian's Wall, but couldn't be sure. In Newcastle, we played Cluny 2 with Warm Digits. It was another really receptive crowd. It was even better because we got to spend time in one of our favourite pubs, the Cumberland Arms and then hang out with Susie and the two Michaels.
Next day, after a quick stop for a proper breakfast we drove to Brighton. It was a long drive. But now I think I've seen all the major service stations in the UK,
Dan and Chris had a go on the bumper cars on the pier
And with that, we came back to London. It was great fun to play these shows and to play to totally new people. Thanks to all the supportive people that we met on the way, and extra special thanks to Future Islands for taking us with them!
Artist: Way Through
Title: Enclosure
Label: Comfortable On A Tightrope
Catalogue Number: COAT015
Formats: Cassette Tape / Digital
Running Time: 28:40
Track listing:
01. Visiting Mercia
02. Helpston
03. Entangled Bank
04. Woodwose
05. Dead Game
06. Wander In The Mire
07. Landscape In Your Language
08. Bledlow Cross
09. Nether Stowey
10. Goodfellow
WAY THROUGH are Claire Titley and Christopher Tipton, a pastoral punk duo originally from Shropshire, now residing in London. Informed by the field as much as the flyover, Way Through write songs which phase in and out with guitar, tapes, damaged drums and vocals. Using wrong-footed repetition, rapid interplay and free-looping happenstance the band create a ragged yet intuitive tapestry of sound. Their first album, ‘Arrow Shower’ was released on Upset The Rhythm last autumn, as well as their book and soundtrack to the East End of London ‘Your Hand Hold For I Have No More’.
‘Enclosure’ is Way Through’s new album released on cassette and digitally via Manchester label, Comfortable On A Tightrope. Recorded entirely at home, drawing on friends as guests, ‘Enclosure’ presents the band in inclusive yet introspective mood, looking at the differences across the boundaries, tracing demarcations. The title ‘Enclosure’ also references the specific action of enclosure, the eighteenth century process by which the English countryside was carved up into the modern field system, when many ordinary people lost their sense of the landscape and their sense of belonging within it.
‘Visiting Mercia’ starts off the album with a song about returning. Melancholic keyboards and stammering guitar refrains float like embers above a bonfire whilst layers of vocals, courtesy of Claire, overlap giving the impression of flooding memories. The lyrics detail a series of observations seen from the window of a train heading through the West Midlands, continuing in the tradition of poems like ‘Adlestrop’, ‘Pershore Station’ and ‘I Remember, I Remember’.
‘Entangled Bank’ sees Way Through team up with Rachel Aggs (Trash Kit, Covergirl, Sacred Paws) to make a tumbling anthem. Contrasting a chance meeting with a ‘77 punk (replete with safety pins and mohawk) with the graceful theme of evolution, ‘Entangled Bank’ considers how through the passage of time everyone, and everywhere is ‘ambushed by laws acting’ upon them, however intangible. Stepping out of the past, “you can see his clothes are catching on the briars, inheritance in heavy boots” sings Rachel, as their protagonist strides onwards in anachronism.
‘Enclosure’ also features several songs named after specific places, like ‘Helpston’, ‘Nether Stowey’ and ‘Bledlow Cross’. These are impressionistic attempts to capture the spirit of a place after a fleeting visit, attempts to find a deeper resonance and to communicate with the nature of the location on its own terms. ‘Helpston’ stalks the cornfields and quarries north of Peterborough in search of nature poet John Clare. ‘Nether Stowey’ swarms with fluttering ambience, pitched cymbals and looped melodies, added to further by guest vocals from Ethan Swan and Heather Anderson (of New York’s Corpsekisser), Way Through making much of the incongruity of American vocalists conveying the most English of scenes. ‘Bledlow Cross’ is a clustering of backwards tape loops and elegiac guitar, its atmosphere tapping into the decaying pathos of the overgrown and fast disappearing chalk hillside monument of its namesake. ‘Woodwose’ is similar in its instrumental composition to ‘Bledlow Cross’ only this time a decidedly rhapsodic guitar line dances through the mists of forlorn organ.
With ‘Enclosure’, Way Through have surrounded their sound, by walking through the mires, tracing burnt circles of earth, shrugging off those knavish tricks that leave us disinherited. “There’s landscape in your language” sing Way Through on ‘Enclosure’, drawing us into their visionary everyday, listening to the land, finding their own voice.
