Heg & The Wolf Chorus
Album: Rain
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 3
Website: http://www.hegandthewolfchorus.com

Rain completes this Bristol-based outfit's trilogy of EPs - a self-styled "triptychal journey" - prior to the release of a full-length album (at last!) slated for some time next year. Once again, the EP is imbued with a deep sense of British story-folklore and presented with all the internal and external drama we've come to associate with Heg & The Wolf Chorus' recordings. The sweeping, swirling, storm-tossed quasi-symphonic strings-and-piano setting of the EP's central (title) track is as suitably impressive as its arrangement and lyrics are intricately crafted. However, its bookends may seem, at any rate on initial acquaintance, marginally less convincing.

The disc's opening gambit, Song For Home, is a booming, foghorn-laden homeward-bound shanty with some powerful ideas and sounds, yet somehow it feels half-formed, its promise dispelled without the half-expected degree of musical or lyrical development; and while finale Sail On at least makes for a logical and reasoned conclusion to the series, it doesn't (yet) quite linger in the memory. Even so, there's no lack of the trademark Heg & The Wolf Chorus visceral excitement in the expression of their ideas. But again, equally, I just know I'll need to give it time, and I suspect that if I were to play the three EPs end to end Rain might well satisfy better in context.

David Kidman