Farewell Poetry – Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite

Oh Farewell Poetry, shall I compare thee to a Godspeed echo? Well, yes – you make it pretty difficult not to, with your serious atmosphere and evocative spoken-word bits: thou art majestic, beautiful and, it must be said, more than a little bit familiar. But this French/English collective are no schmucks: they understand the dynamic intimately (it’s all about contrast, don’t you know), and, when pitched just right, no other aesthetic sets off shivers quite so effectively.

While the obvious checkpoints keep coming – from the typically po-faced name to their use of experimental film online and live – both musical and poetic elements are well-judged, with crescendos in all the right places and turns of phrase like “and the millions suck at my bowels like mice” eliciting unfamiliar emotion. Consequently, Hoping For the Invisible to Ignite gets under the listener’s skin; if not in shards, then certainly in slithers. [Chris Buckle]