Strings Of Consciousness - Our Moon Is Full

Our Moon Is Full is the first full length release from Strings Of Consciousness, originally a mainly French collective that through the internet hooked up with other collaborators in London, Paris and France. Their sound could probably be described as a combination of post-rock and trip hop, bringing to mind both Tricky's wonderful debut album, the more dance orientated side of Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, and with the array of guest vocalists narrating tales of nightime evil and mishap, the apocalyptic parables of Current 93's Black Ships ate The Sky LP.

The collective is made up of 9 instrumentalists, but as i've mentioned, for every track on this first LP they've selected a vocalist to bring the sounds further to life. So we get J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus and a million other projects), Scott McCloud of Girls Against Boys, Eugene Robinson of the tremendous Oxbow, Barry Adamson (Magazine, The Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party, albums of solo brilliance), Pete Simonelli (Enablers,) Lisa Smith Klossner and Black Sifichi.

Adamson is a notable contributor because to my ears his solo records (Oedipus Schmoedipus, Moss Side Story) have undoubtedly been a major influence on this noirish and sometimes jazzy album. Hints of Arab Strap and Tortoise also resonate. It's really pretty stunning, and i'd be interested to see the band live. They played at the recent Supersonic festival in Birmingham, and have a date at London's Luminaire lined up for early September. More info on their myspace or official site.

Strings Of Consciousness - Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness (with Eugene Robinson)
Strings Of Consciousness - In Between (with Pete Simonelli)