Staff Reviews

Last Harbour - Volo

Review by Neil Ashman

This is just about as sombre as music can get; even old Nick finds time for a dick-joke or two, but Last Harbour play it totally straight. »

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based in manchester, last harbour are an expansive collective featuring an array of classical instrumentation as well as guitar, bass and drums. their new album volo was co-produced by the band and richard formby (wild beasts, herman dune, spacemen 3, dakota suite). from dusty laments to doom-filled rock, from starkly beautiful duets to drifting clouds of looped noise, there's always an intensity that strikes hard. it's a highly original record featuring the band's strongest songs and most creative arrangements of their career to date. the band's previous album 'dead fires and the lonely spark' (2008) was recorded to tape in a week with the band in full control. in deliberate contrast, 'volo' was recorded piece by piece over a year in various locations and an early decision was taken that formby alone would mix the results. that freed up the band's songwriting process. very few of the songs were fully formed before recording began and many took shape and direction through the process of multi-layering instruments, loop creation and shifting arrangements. the album's title refers to a type of early 20th century child's toy ouija board and to the latin word for 'a desire' or 'a will'. both are a good fit. by relinquishing control of the record, last harbour have created a space for the unseen and unheard to become realised.
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