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You'd be forgiven for running a mile from this, The Post's follow up to their near-impenetrable debut 'Backwards' â?? an album full not so much of music, but rather randomly assembled snippets of noise. It was an unsightly patchwork of a record â?? full of individual squares of excellence, but an unfulfilling experience overall. However, 'Hasten The Homecoming' is anything but unfulfilling. The trio have found a fondness for melody amongst their yearnings for bass-heavy drone rock, and aren't shy in promoting them to the fore. Occasionally they come unstuck â?? Drift's awkward midsection makes the more unwieldy moments of Blur's '13' sound like 'Parklife' â?? but tracks like Clockspring Bird and the Scout Niblett-assisted At Rest are quite remarkable. 'Hasten...' was recorded over two sessions, both of which were held in remote places â?? one a barn in the middle of a wood, the other in a windowless 5,000 square foot warehouse â?? and feelings of isolation and loneliness are rife throughout the record. Yet for all Oliver Boch's mournful vocals (think Thom Yorke, David Byrne, Nick Cave and Ian Curtis singing in a barber shop quartet) and down-tuned bass, there's a real sense of hope come the album's closer, Teddy. Echo Cave's Red Right Hand it may do, at least at first, but there's real beauty lurking just below the initial menace, and as the guitar picks up pace halfway through, writhing like a serpent in the listener's belly, the dark clouds lift and the sun shines as brightly as it ever has. If only they'd had windows to see it.

Mike Diver
CWAS #13 - Autumn 2003

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