Single Review// Colour Of Bone – 'Itch'
Colour Of Bone have a certain
quality to their music – a sense of neurosis and fraying sanity that cannot
fail to unsettle. The synthetic rubs up against the natural, forcing contrast
upon the ear – the aggressively untamed versus the strictly regimented, the
harsh against the gentle, strain and relaxation playing off one another. This
isn't so much 'edgy' as 'on edge'.
Debut single 'Low Mode' was a
slice of neurotically danceable Krautrock with a skirling electro-flute
interlude, pivoting on its refrain of “I was made for you”. Second
single 'Itch' eschews the dance elements for something more psychedelic; from
the opening staccato piano riff to the closing stabs of acoustic guitar, this
sounds like the soundtrack to a bad trip. Electronic drums skitter, a distorted
synth bass hems and haws at the ear, vocals fuzz and hiss in agitated delirium.
Just when the assault starts to pall, the squall abates and a lone, scratchy
string line floats out of the murk, accompanied by a strummed acoustic guitar;
the vocals become gentler, swathing themselves in echo. And yet the bad vibes
can't be kept at bay for long; they insinuate themselves under the swaying
lament, insidiously reclaiming the melody until they drop away for the final,
brief coda with the strummed acoustic, and only their sudden absence alerts you
to their return. As with 'Low Mode', there's a lyrical refrain which drives the
music; here, though, the plea is not for company but for solitude - “leave
me, I think I'll be a while”. Each time it appears, the music binds ever
tighter around the ear until there seems no escape.
Colour Of Bone: scratch the
itch, and enter their dark and doomy world.
'Itch' is released on July 15th.
Reviewed by Edward Feery
