Imbogodom And They Turned Not When They Left Thrill Jockey
This album, recorded using analogue tape loops at BBC’s Bush House and sounds recorded in Dungeness in Kent, starts out with a single big kerrong from Big Ben, and hot on its tail comes an ominous drone worthy of a David Lynch film. “Borogmog’s Clock” has been set in motion: bells chime, different sounds echo across one another, and the tape crackles almost inaudibly. Something unsettling is moving across London.
Alexander Tucker and Daniel Beban aren’t only interested in shaping found noises into soundscapes, however: “Slate Grey Light” propels forward on a strumming riff and long vowel-heavy vocal lines before partially dissolving into another ominous drone, “Etchum Buoy.” Over the course of the album a tension forms both across and between the tracks like “Slate Grey Light,” “Window Faces,” the haunting “Heir Looms,” “Red Brick Roundhouse,” “Rubbings” and “Pillars of Ash,” which begin to form themselves into structured songs without ever quite realizing that form, or before splintering away—and there’s another layer of tension just in that—and the tracks, like the opener, “Echum Buoy, ” “The Passing Presence,” “Nuclear Wind,” and “I Am Here, I Am Gone,” that operate more as soundscapes or experiments, or something in between soundscape and song. That tension, held together by the waxing and waning drones, which come in a variety of pitches, and repetitions of sounds and themes, give the sense of a narrative to “And They Turned Not When They Went”; but what’s the story, and where is it taking us? The answer isn’t clear, and nor is it supposed to be: the phone call and footsteps from “Welcome Away” only deepen the unsettling mystery, and translate it into satellite bleeps from space. But answers aren’t necessarily what narratives are supposed to be about. “And They Turned Not When They Went” maps a compelling journey that lingers in your ears and on your mind, and doesn’t easily shake itself off, even when the final track disappears into disconcerting silence. Repeated listening isn’t so much recommended as required.
