Making a New World cassette

In so many ways, "Making A New World" has been an age coming. A full century, in fact. The seventh album from Peter and David Brewis' rightly lauded outfit is their most ambitious, with the talented craftsmen forsaking the contemporaneous commentary present throughout much of their oeuvre in favour of adopting the position of historic documenters. Confused? No worries, let's cut to the kind of direct chase suited to their North East English roots. A highly political work, the record attempts to explain the shocking state of today's planet - and civilisation - by tracing problems back to World War I. And it makes a big impression in doing so. Opening with the field recording-esque "Sound Ranging", and then the startlingly tender piano solo "Silence/After The Fact", it's not long before the art-pop-prog starts to properly unfold, spanning a fittingly huge 19 tracks to close on the sinister-sounding and resoundingly unsettling "An Independent State". Marvellous stuff.