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The Black Heart Procession found their own limping pace some time ago, and they're not about to break it now. With a lack of imagination that ill behoves a band that rely on musical saw and waterphone as their musical bedrock, and one of whom is regularly to be found sporting a horses head, like some latter-day Bottom, they've called their third album 3 (hot on the heels of 1 and 2). Like an Eastern Bloc oompah band roped in to provide the soundtrack to some creepy Czech animation, Black Heart Procession make music that is at once taught and regimented, while retaining a truly dark heart and a penchant for spookiness. Guess I'll Forget You sounds like a memorial, with its scrunching drum loop, mournful trumpet and tainted poetry: "now you know there's no light on the waves / but before I turn there's just one last word then I'll try to forget you." It's a mournful trench that the band unwaveringly yomp through as they work their rather twisted way towards sheer desolation, constructing a layered colossus that occasionally crumbles through lack of engagement, but never fails to be interesting.

Martin Williams
CWAS #6 - Autumn 2000

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