Encircle

Description

Every night weve been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking. Thurston Moore

Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate. The Quietus

Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea. MOJO

Limited 180g hot pink vinyl (300 copies worldwide). INDIES ONLY.

Limited 180g black vinyl (300 copies worldwide)

Nottingham duo RATTLEs forthcoming third album Encircle will be released on Feb 28th (Upset The Rhythm), and sees the duo expand their unique experiments in rhythm, metre and tension.

Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. Theyve since released two long-players, 2016s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!

Rattle have honed the four songs that make up Encircle by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. Encircle was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattles other mesmeric covers.

All Burning opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. All Burning was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresas cumulative snare work and Katherines urgent calls for action: hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses. If All Burning represents fire, then its accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, Argot, is informed by the air. Argot is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. Ritual is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers Ritual as very earthy song lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something! Ritual was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. Your Move is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, Your Move, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.

With Encircle Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circles edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.

Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.