Modern Nature – The Heat Warps

Description

Perfectly timed late summer lanquidity from Modern Nature with what is their fifth and most likely best long player to date. The main appeal of the group has often centred on their quiet experimentation, an exploration of disparate influences that searches out connecting threads between krautrock, indiepop, folk, jazz and ambient sound. The Heat Warps doesn’t exactly abandon that philosophy, but it does feel more sharply focused and, dare I say, ‘song-based’. It’s particularly buoyed by the presence of new second guitarist Tara Cunningham, who gently interlocks with singer/other guitarist Jack Cooper in a way that sometimes reminds me of his previous band, Ultimate Painting – loping, chiming and melodic, but also guided by a subtle propulsion. Can remain an obvious source of inspiration, though it’s the 90s US underground that feels like the most pertinent point of comparison, evoking the fluid genre agnosticism of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, and perhaps most effectively, the emotional candour of Low circa Secret Name. The Heat Warps might then be considered something akin to post-rock, though it’s the kind that lacks any pronounced dramatics. These are songs to search around, to be charmed by and live inside over time. The world now seems to exist in some kind of perpetual race against the clock, perhaps even towards its own demise, but if you can temporarily stave off the finality and carve out some time, a record like The Heat Warps functions as a salve.
 
FFO: Low, The Sea and Cake, Can, Gastr Del Sol, Sam Prekop, Tortoise