The Travelling Band – Screaming Is Something

Manchester’s The Travelling Band have horizons both narrow and broad: musically, they’re content to operate within parameters so well-established they might as well be carved in mahogany, but spiritually, they’re gazing out over vast imagined prairies. The quintet seem well-placed to pick up where London-by-way-of-Australia’s Grand Drive (now seemingly out to pasture) left off, with second album Screaming Is Something (and it really would be in such genial company) delivering ten beautifully-played tracks born of the North West but with hearts heading further westward still. Its relative understatedness could prove a boon in the current musical climate – while it’s nominal genre of folk-americana-etc is ascendant thanks to Mumford and Sons et al, The Travelling Band compare favourably by eschewing the bombast of its current figureheads. But it also proves an obstacle; every track makes for a pleasant listen, but few imprint themselves with any conviction in the memory. [Chris Buckle]