posted: 2024-07-25 ///Codename: Dustsucker Bark Psychosis

For a select few, the emergence of an album’s worth of new material from Bark Psychosis will be a major event. For back in 1994, this relatively unknown group released Hex, one of the most critical bodies of work which defined the genre now known as post-rock. Blending the key elements of Talk Talk’s later albums – i.e. the beauty of space between sounds and an appreciation of jazz – with an air of London paranoia, Hex has been building up a steady stream of appreciation culminating in a number of dubiously-conceived compilations released after the group members went their separate ways.

CODENAME:Dustsucker is spearheaded by creative lynchpin Graham Sutton and of the other former members only Mark Simnett makes an appearance courtesy of his “found drums”. Nevertheless the results could have feasibly been made the day after Hex as the Bark Psychosis sound has remained largely the same, even considering there are fifteen musicians taking part including Talk Talk’s Lee Harris. Sure, the overwrought emotion is absent and the only recognition of their earlier, noisier singles is on the freeform sections of “Shapeshifting” but their skill to match the nightmares with the dreams, the industrial squalor with undiscovered heavenly places, is undiminished. “The Black Meat” is Sutton and co. at the peak of their powers: three minutes of brooding, guitar soundscapes and Sutton’s trademark hushed vocal, the song appears to finish then some glorious blasts of T.J. Mackenzie’s trumpet hit on the most gorgeous of melodies, before this too is gradually replaced by a shimmering, dream-like ambient fog. It truly is a beautiful moment. Anja Buechele adds her own whisper to two tracks, proving more than a match for Sutton’s soothing tones. There’s a sense that danger is always just round the corner but Bark Psychosis know just when to apply the restraints and as the female voice urges the listener to “Vertrauen mich” on blissful closer “Rose” it’s hard to resist. Because you can trust on Bark Psychosis to make fantastic records.

Leonard's Lair