Album of the Week: Rumour Cubes – The Narrow State
The Tidal Wave of Indifference bloody loves post rock.
Hopefully that was obvious with our frequent Mogwai-related drooling and our championing of pretty much everything that comes with guitars set to ‘epic’ and vocals set to ‘none’.
The arrival of the debut album by London-based instrumentalist Rumour Cubes in our inbox was always likely to receive favourable treatment then, but thankfully this is no mere run-of-the-mill jaunt.
Yes, we swoon over its glacial guitars, its unhurried build up and its massive, massive loud guitars, but it’s the use of the violin that adds that little bit extra to proceedings.
It’s not exactly a new trick for a post rock band, but Rumour Cubes bring out the best of the instrument once best known for being your weapon of choice when deliberating whether to beat Nigel Kennedy to death or not.
In amongst the thunderous guitars and portentous pontificating on The Gove Curve, the violins (and viola) are lacerating, rhythmic, and deeply unsettling. On the more lament-like At Sea, they’re heartfelt and more likely to have you staring at the bottom of a glass wondering why your beloved left you and even took the bloody cat.
At six tracks, The Narrow State is perhaps a little slight as nothing here, unlike, for example, much of the work of Mono, will have you checking your watch. But there’s plenty going on and the frequent time changes (see halfway through Rain On Titan) keep things interesting.
Triptych is a full-on blast of rock and roll and sounds like it would best appreciated live with everything, bowed or otherwise, getting the crap kicked out of it, until things break down rather beautifully. Needless to say, it then ramps up once again, conveying that sense of euphoria that makers of this kind music must all strive for.
But very few truly achieve it.
Naturally, we had a wee yarn with the band.
Are there any particular themes running through the record?
Adam Stark (guitar/electronics): One particular theme that has come out is the marketisation of education. This wasn’t particularly deliberate but there are strong political impulses in the band and so it happened naturally. Certainly, we believe that education should be a) free to all and b) free-thinking, i.e., it should not merely be the servant of a market economy, churning out ready-to-go employees – rather it should seek to empower people to challenge the society they are living in, giving each generation the opportunity to remake it as their own. These are some of the themes behind the opening two tracks, “The University is a Factory” and “The Gove Curve”. The poem that appears on The Gove Curve was written by poet Steve Willey, a good friend of the band.
Terry Murphy (viola): In a way all the songs bear the influence of the state and mood of the country at the time we made the album. I think the title ‘The Narrow State’ reflects both how we all feel about the political and governmental climate at the moment, and the mood of the songs bears that out, be it as a reflection of gloom and depression – or oppression even – or as a rallying cry of intent and hope in railing against that. Lauren Mortimer, who did the magnificent drawings for our album, really symbolised visually the marketisation of education theme, too.
How was the recording process?
AS: Brilliant! And long! We recorded the album at Café Music Studios in east London, with Mark Sutherland (producer) and Cherif Hashizume (engineer). They injected a new life into the band and really made sure we got the best out of ourselves. We are also a picky bunch and so it took a lot of tweaking and revisiting things until we were able to sit down, listen to it and say “ok, it’s done, time to stop”. The record took nine months to make explicitly with some parts recorded more than 18 months ago. We are pleased with it though.
TM: We had to stop because we’d eaten all the supplies of ton-weight syrupy waffles from the shop next door. And by ‘we’ I mean Adam. Mark and Cherif really welcomed us into their studio and it became our second home – I’d charge Omar (Rahwangi – drums) rent if I were them! The amount of junk food required was heavy going though – that was definitely our rock and roll excess.
Hannah Morgan (violin): I had an absolutely amazing time at Café Music Studios. It’s a wonderful place that we pretty much entirely took over while we were there – we’d have one member downstairs recording, others assembling string lines upstairs, while the rest were making coffee, ordering Chinese, doing band admin on laptops… And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the jamming sessions, cover versions, filming, podcasting, etc that was going on as well. I’d live my life like that if I could.
What prompted the use of strings in your sound?
AS: I think when we formed the band, we wanted to go for a more diverse line up. A number of other musicians tried out for the band, including a cellist and a flautist. We tried our best to find a contra-bassoon player, but to no avail.
TM: One of the Sky Sports News presenters plays the bassoon – I used to play in the Merseyside Youth Orchestra with him. We could drop him a line. I wasn’t in the band when the line-up was decided, but I assume the decision to have a violin was due to not being able to find two violas (only joking, Hannah!)
HM: Actually I seem to recall it being me who suggested a viola player! We wanted something to complement and contrast the violin, and toyed with a few different instrumental ideas but the viola was by far the best choice – it’s a more mellow and fuller sound than the violin, but still has a similar range, whereas a cello would have been an octave lower.
Any plans to tour? Scotland perhaps?
AS: We do plan to tour later this year, yes. No specifics as yet, but we’d love to come up to Scotland – anyone wanna put us up?!
TM: I went to a wedding at a place called Crear about 20 miles from
Lochgilphead on the west coast of Scotland in the summer (I mean I went there in the summer. I assume it’s on the west coast of Scotland all year round, rather than being migratory). It runs residential courses for musicians I think. It’s in the middle of nowhere, so chances are we’d be playing to a field of sheep, but it would be an awesome setting!
HM: Touring is something we absolutely, desperately want to do. We just need to find time to do it! Co-ordinating seven people is difficult at the best of times. But we’ll definitely get there soon.
The Narrow State is available on Monday on Bandcamp.
