TRANSMIT:
Tony Buck
Brendan Dougherty
Magda Mayas
James Welburn

Project by Tony Buck of THE NECKS (drums, percussion, guitar, voice), Magda Mayas (organ, clavinet, piano), Brendan Dougherty (drums, percussion) and James Welburn (electric bass). It's unpredictable and psychedelic wander around rhythm complemented with deep and essential sounding of live instruments. Expanding upon the template set-up by the first Transmit release [project], extending the instrumental palette and approach to sonority and song form while retaining the power and drive of their initial sound. The addition of the psychedelic organ and keyboard sounds of Magda Mayas merge with the basic line-up of guitar, bass and drums to fuel insistent grooves and stretch the songs into trance and ritualistic dimensions. Textures, instrumental combinations and approaches more often associated with electro acoustic improvisation and free music are utilised within more conventional song forms. Long, ambient soundscapes that morph seamlessly into or out of song structures or riffs and melodies from more familiar places push this music into exciting new territory. Like the first transmit album, there are nods and winks towards the standard bearers of classic and contemporary rock; this time from perhaps The Who, Shellac or Swans stretching all the way to North African, Balkan or Ethiopian grooves. The album even features a multi-layered, noise-hymn cover of 80's classic hit 'Drive' by The Cars! Tony Buck and Brendan Dougherty contribute a strong double drums bedrock on which the building blocks of the bass and guitar of James Welburn and Buck set the scene for the swirling, dense and hallucinogenic sonic worlds the band creates. At times dark and heavy, at others meditative and kaleidoscopic, the music has never the less an almost pop sensibility at heart that makes even the most adventurous and challenging aspects of the record deeply moving and accessible.