Album Review: II by The Early Years

II II.

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If a year is a long time in football then what is a decade in pop music? One the on hand it is a dangerous length of time for a band to spend between albums, but if you’re The Early Years, you can say that on the other hand your members have been kept busy. Their valid excuse is that age old favourite reason for splitting up, ‘musical differences’. Here however the differences have been harnessed in a wholly positive way, members of the band effectively loaning themselves out until ready to make a second collective statement.

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Big gaps between albums are rarely a good sign. In fact, the longer the gestation period, the bigger the let-down. There are exceptions (Aerial by Kate Bush springs to mind), but only the devoted and cloth-eared fans of My Bloody Valentine (21 years between Loveless and m b v) would argue that it was worth the wait. The Early Years could be the rare exception.

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Jo Kendall on the latest releases from The Early Years, Epica, Glass Hammer, Archive and Teksti-TV 666 The Early Years - II Having reluctantly packed the spotted hanky and tied it to the stick for the long trudge home from this year’s Liverpool Psych Fest, at least there’s a new release from scene champs the Early Years to welcome us back. ADVERTISINGinRead invented by Teads It’s taken 10 years for the London/Manchester four-piece to follow up their debut, and in that time their neo-Kraut thunder could have been stolen by any one of the new swell of swirly shirted, skinny-jeaned-and-winkle-pickered spacemen and women currently out there. But II is an assured return; a glorious tableau of Eno ambience, Joy Division imperiousness and Cluster exploration.

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Forever upholding the congregational faith for the latterly vindicated and reinvigorated sounds of vintage shoegaze, krautrock and noise-rock during its existence to date, London’s Sonic Cathedral label has overcome plenty of ups and downs (notably a devastating distributor warehouse fire and pressing-plant congestion battles) to keep its leading benevolent proselytisers in touch with their devout followers. Having given us a curveballing remix collection from Spectres, an oddly prescient live-album reinterpretation of David Bowie’s Low from Disappears, a comeback long-player from Yeti Lane and a glow-in-the dark Kraftwerk tribute 12” EP, in a robust and eclectic release schedule for 2016 already, Sonic Cathedral now also delivers two sonically ambitious releases from Lorelle Meets The Obsolete and The Early Years. Following on from a profile-raising appearance on a Record Store Day-baiting split-reciprocal-covers 7” with Spectres in 2015, Guadalajara’s Lorelle Meets The Obsolete deliver a sequel to 2014’s Chambers, with recalibrating fourth LP Balance.

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