pelt

Dauphin Elegies

It's been three years since Pelt's last studio album, which frankly, is a good show of restraint from any improv group. It can get a tad exhausting hearing musicians droning on (literally) with weekly release bulletins just because they don't need to take time out to do any writing. This four-part longplayer by the band (plus their collaborator Nathan Bowles of Black Twigs and Spiral Joy Band) sounds more composed than most however, mixing up their plan of attack and switching from wild string bowing chaos on 'Fire Signs On The Edge Of The Field' to radiant tonal vistas like the thirty minute 'Cast Out To Deep Waters', which shifts between sounding like an orchestra tuning up and sheer, ecstatic drone pandemonium. It's heavy stuff, and not at the more pastoral end of the drone spectrum by any measure (just try listening to this in the background while you're doing the washing up), but if you see it through to the end, Pelt reward you with a three-minute trinket 'Crown Of Comets', a beautiful piece of chiming chaos that slowly brings your ears back down to earth.