Album Review: Squid – Bright Green Field (Warp)

There is research that shows that people driving and listening to techno music drive a bit faster, and that people driving most safely are probably listening to Norah Jones. If you notice a driver near you spin into reverse, turn on all their lights, speed up and overtake you before slamming on the brakes and then driving slowly in the opposite direction they are most likely listening to this album by Squid.

Squid are a 5 piece group from Brighton who, along with bands such as Goat Girl, Black Midi and Black Country New Road, are associated with the Windmill Pub in Brixton. Bright Green Field has dark lyrics which conjure up an unwelcome consumer world. The music has hints of Talking Heads, Talk Talk and Can. This is an exciting album that transcends the influences to create something new.

The first track is Resolution and although this it is just forty seconds long the mix of snatched voices, background noise and instruments tuning up disorientates you and prepares you for the album. It is immediately followed by GSK with has a slow funky groove, bursts of guitar rhythm and later a trumpet. Ollie Judge’s shouted, desperate sounding vocal starts by announcing “As the Sun sets on the GlaxoKline” and repeats phrases like “On concrete island” and “speeding along”  to build a sense that we are in some kind of dystopian nightmare.

On the eight and half minute Narrator Judge’s vocals are contrasted with the the whispered voice of Martha Skye Murphy. Over a fast drum beat intwined with the bass Judge repeats the phrase “Losing my flow, And my memories are so unnatural I am my own Narrator.” Skye Murphy is also unsettled and sings, “Mould beauty out of clay. Write words for me to say.” The intensity of the music grows into a cacophony of sounds from guitars, drums and synthesiser and then drops out. In the second half of the song the only lyrics are “I’ll play mine” which Judge and Skye Murphy repeat, at first monotonously, but then with increased passion. The lyrics are accompanied at first by eerie synthesised noises swooping in and out and later by a guitar based groove. Finally, the whole song collapses into 30 seconds of feedback.

The next track Boy Racers starts with jerky, krautrock guitars. The lyrics echo JG Ballard’s novel Crash, e.g. “were you mangled by a tree.” For the first three and half minutes this track has seemed quite a conventional song. What follows is a second half of droning synths, echoing eerie voices and heavy breathing and a final minute and half of a loud buzzing like a swarm of electronic bees.

A picked guitar motif starts Paddling and this is repeated later in the track over a fast drum loop. Synthesised noises drop in and out of the guitar based groove with occasional bursts of trumpets combining to a create a chaotic sound that would suit a chase scene in a movie where no one is sure who they are chasing.

Documentary Filmmaker initially has a quietly spoken word vocal. Over the increasingly intense drum beat words are sung angrily,initially about the weather which is “warm in the summer” and “snowy in February” and then finally about “the price of eggs.”

2010 is a disorientating musical journey. At the start it is a jazzy and bass driven. In the background the sound of something being wound up slowly.  The vocals are two voices almost talking over the top of each other which builds to a power chord riff and drums bursting through. Although the jazzy bass and drums return there is a guitar freak out which enhances lyrics such as  “You’re upside down, I’m upside down, you’re the wrong way round.”

The second instrumental, The Flyover, is one minute of whispering, distorted vocals and the droning noise of synthesiser which creates a science fiction horror movie soundscape. Peel Street follows this with punky vocals over fast, scratchy post punk guitar riffs before Global Groove addresses the way TV brings death and destruction into our everyday lives. Over a slow drum beat and electronic noise the lyrics recount how you can “Watch your favourite war on TV.” The track ends with distorted vocals that sound as if they come from a radio broadcast.

Fast rockabilly guitars and pummeling drums kick start the final track Pamphlets. The upbeat feeling is enhanced by the addition of sax and trumpets. Although eight minutes long this track has the most consistent sound of any of the longer tracks. Judge sings about “pale teeth”, “pale bricks” and “brand new car” alternating between getting louder and more frantic and other times becoming quieter and more controlled. The tone of the lyrics condemns the seemingly endless pamphlets “through my door”  and “on my floor” that offer consumers limitless choice. The repeated refrain at the end of “we’ve got everything, everything that you like” speaks to how people feel overwhelmed rather than satisfied by consumerism.

This is a fantastic album, and a band that I would love to experience live. Rather than listen to individual songs put aside fifty minutes and listen from end to end. Despite the bleak subject matter of the lyrics the inventiveness of the music will put a smile on your face. The album is a wild ride so don’t listen to it whilst driving.

John Bradbury