Patchwork Rattlebag are from Salford, collect found noise Peter Gabriel style, and are apparently fans of both Moby and Nick Drake (or perhaps the much missed Gravenhurst), so much so they can’t decide who they like best. This makes for an interesting album.
Opener “Shade of My Mind” is a chilled, glitchy electronic sound, the sort of track Rob Da Bank would have played at 5am to appeal both to ravers coming down and shift workers going out – an electronic, psychedelic, folky sound. It’s one of the early standouts.
“Fragment 1” is next, with backward singing and presumably found sound, perhaps to remove all expectation from a listener’s head (one of several similarly named interludes). Whatever you were expecting, this was not it, the vocals giving way to a wonky electric drums sound over pulsing synth. Or perhaps it cleans the aural palate, as the next track, “To Find a Place”, is a dreamy acoustic one. Nick Drake on wonky synths.
“On My Own” leans more towards Moby, though the vocals are a little Tracy Thorn.
Abschattungen (which means “shade” in German) is a gentle track and another early standout: dreamy guitar and a vocal harmony sat back in the mix, plus bloopy electronica and a buzz that will have you looking at your phone. “Simple Glance” is a harder synth sound (in fact, what you might imagine “Abschattungen” would sound like).
The album plays out to the more acoustic sounds of “Vertigo Dreams” and the stripped down electronica of “A Book on My Shelf”.
It’s low key and intellectually interesting as opposed to exciting, but an enjoyable play. For fans of more ambient Moby, Gravenhurst, Four Tet and the like.
See patchworkrattlebag.bandcamp.com.
JMC
