The Winchester Club – Negative Liberty

The Winchester Club are a band whose name you likely haven’t come across, they have a sound that you probably have, and yet they still make music that resonates uniquely in the mind. While that seems contradictory, it remains true in that while their influences are worn proudly on their sleeves, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Red Sparowes, there is a sense of direction to these five pieces which usually isn’t to be found on your typical instrumental-rock-by-numbers release.

Taking a huge amount of inspiration from Adam Curtis’ exploration of human behaviour, The Trap, from song titles like The Lonely Robot to the looped sample contained in epic centrepiece R.D. Laing (Little Chemical Straightjackets), the subject matter is suitably bleak to warrant the crushing sense of isolation this album conveys. They've utilised the post-rock tropes of repetition and contrast before stretching them to breaking point, constructing a black hole of guitar and bass, absorbing and impossible to escape. [David Bowes]