Deadwall – The Zero Cliff

As Mark E Smith’s fascination with Camus and countless other writers suggests, wonderful things can happen when music and literature collide. Inspired by four books (specifically Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great, Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything, Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s The Cloudspotter's Guide and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We), Deadwall's second LP is thematically profound: the title is taken from the latter novel, which focuses on the human notion of 'zero' – essentially change and what it means; how we deal with it, view it, impose it and ignore it. Fittingly, Deadwall employ musical arrangements that convey human emotion in order to tell their own stories, and the results are both visceral and expertly crafted.

While 2014's debut LP Bukimi no Tani was a triumphant insight into Deadwall’s propensity for blending beauty with brutality, their full potential is realised here. Each track flows seamlessly into the next. Even the heavy subject matter can’t detract from its often poppy exterior – see the dreamy Cirrus Song for how to make a perfect melody.

In theory, the album's occasional nods to 90s college rock should denote rock ‘n’ rock anachronism, but glimmers of chamber pop defy the usual connotations of the genre: there is nothing lo-fi about this. The Zero Cliff is a beautiful collection of songs you can easily find yourself getting lost in.

Listen to: Cirrus Song, Pristine Spirals