Description
2016, 2×12″ LP, Claremont 56.
Seven years since the last Smith & Mudd album kissed our ears… Gorthlek is a long-awaited treat that’s landed (by no coincidence we suspect) right at the start of prime sandy season. Picking up where they left us (together and as part of the Bison collective), it’s every bit as soul soothing, soft-focus and poised as you’d expect. It’s the weight and richness that will grab most fans the hardest; amid the floral pastoral instrumentation on tracks such as “Alrick” and “Gorthlek Part 1”, there’s real swampy bluesy fusion such as “Mr Coats”, there’s fiddle-flipping cosmic folk on “Enos” and naked piano striking drama on the closure “Gorthlek Part 2”. Instrumental Balearic bliss. – Juno
