Released: 01/06/09

Dare I say it, but Broken Records’ Until The Earth Begins To Part isn’t quite perfect; however, the sheer shimmering layers of passion, the unashamedly audacious originality and the huge flaming avalanches of blue and green sonic beauty all conspire to produce an album of immense potency, which rewards its listeners and deserves their accolades.

In a musical climate ten-a-penny with sound-a-like indie bands and electronic experiments devoid of real emotion, here cometh a collective who aren’t afraid to adventure and push boundaries simply to produce the best and most touching music they can, and in doing so should rightfully gain the masses’ adulation.

The record starts off with a tense atmospheric build-up of various instruments until the fantastically grand, melodically shifting strings of Nearly Home kick in, introducing the beginning of the remarkable sound odyssey one is about to embark on in epic, daring fashion. Almost every track on this album can be taken as an entity of individual splendour in its own right but the zeniths of pure and utterly exceptional excellence, the kind of songs that most more established bands have yet to and probably will never produce in their careers, are A Promise, the glorious Wolves and Slow Parade.

And then there’s the voice. Your Orpheus’ lyre guide to this mercurial exploration of rapture and influence are Jamie Sutherland’s astonishing vocals, full of raw emotional intensity, deep Caledonian burr just detectable on the edge of his reverberating timbre. Lyrically, it has to be said, that the band are a bit tame in comparison to their astonishing ventures in all other aspects of their music, but the quality of Sutherland’s range has that very rare skill to make those lyrics affecting despite their relative docility.

They’re playing at the Thekla on the 9th June; music this good on CD promises to be unimaginable live.

www.brokenrecordsband.com

Patrick Cash