Wilderness
(k)no(w)here
Jagjaguwar


Like the title of this album, Wilderness are a band lost in a world of the indefinable, of multiplicity and plurality. The postmodern title of their third '(k)no(w)here' sums things up perfectly, as the music is informed by many possibilities - "no, here" or "know, here" or even "now, where?".

If it wasn't obvious by now, Wilderness are a hard band to pigeon hole - obviously influenced by the structural considerations, if not the aesthetics, of the original post-punk movement (particularly PiL) but pulled through the wringer of contemporary post-rock instrumentation and slow-burning crescendos. Yet at the centre of all of this strangeness lies the voice of lead singer James Johnson; dramatic, tortured and highly unusual. When his voice first bursts forth from the speakers, nearly three minutes into opener High Nero, with a yell of "where oh where are people in control?" you'll nearly fall off your chair, struck from the hypnotic, semi-Explosions In The Sky-type trance that the music will have lulled you into. Johnson uses his voice like a weapon - spitting, emoting and generally expressing himself over the music - some may find it off-putting, even out of place, but give it a chance and by the time out-minute album centrepiece Chinese Whispers rolls around you'll be used to it.

Their combination of ideas still continues to surprise throughout, wavering between atmospheric, almost ambient passages occasionally recalling Durutti Column or Television before getting tribal and driven on a tune like Soft Cage. Closer <...._....> comes the closest to being a post-rock tune, with a genuinely heart-breaking melody, yet you're always pulled back out by that clattering howl.

How you deal with '(k)no(w)here' depends entirely on how you cope with Johnson. Push past the non-conventional delivery, and you'll discover an album of rewarding and ultimately, highly original songs. Far more than the sum of their influences, Wilderness are rather a band informed by the past, but in a kind of weird and wonderful, de-constructionist sense.

Patrick Lang