Sennen - Age Of Denial

Norwich’s Sennen brush aside the Alan Partidge jokes in favour of grungey shoe-gaze post-rock. From the title track’s fuzzy opening seconds to the steady, tribal toms and melodic rock of With You, the four-piece concentrate on effectively harmonised dual vocals, undulating keyboard riffs and drones, and Explosions In The Sky style guitar parts. The opening vocal of A Little High almost recalls The Shins, before the familiar jangly indie fills in below, forceful bass and shimmery percussion building to a typically Mogwai climax.

However, the epic closing passages repeat a potentially uncomfortable number of times, a format which is replicated in Innocence and the later SOS, effect-laden vocals uncomfortably Stones Roses-esque. The down-tempo haze of Falling Down adds variety, atmospheric closing track Out Of Our Depth rippling in and out like a crackled recording, showing this album to be atmospheric and thought-out, if only let down by some mid-record slow-burners.