Rattle: Lots of Sock and No Little Roll

Title: Sequence

Label: Upset the Rhythm

Rattle are two ladies from the city of Nottingham, UK namely Katherine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley. And they give us? Drums. Plus a few vocalisations. And that’s yer lot.

The album was created by the pair facing each other, over their drums and creating there and then. That is, the music develops in an ad hoc manner. This is possibly why the album consists of only four songs. 

The mastering of this album is good. Compression, if there is any applied, can effectively be ignored as an issue. The soundstage is broad with enough air and space in and around the midrange to provide effective and atmospheric reverb. Cymbal hits are tonally interesting while the vocals offer emotive force. 

Each song is at least 10 minutes in length so the ladies have obviously just let the thought processes flow, given the music time to expand and stretch and to wander in directions unknown. This element of freeform means that we – both the musicians and audience – are locked into a sort of shared existence. There’s nothing else in the mix to divert the attention (ok, there’s cymbals in there but percussion is where it’s at), which focuses the sound and the mind.

And those vocalisations are, on the whole, wordless. There are moments of recognisable word play inserted on occasion and when they appear, the arrive as a bit of a shock, to be honest. 

Yes, there is a slight Siouxsie Sioux thing going on here and there in vocal terms and certain elements of the music does draw in slight comparisons with her band, The Creatures but this duo do not offer a ‘me too’ effort here. There’s plenty of unique sonic flavours at work, quite apart from that stripped and pure sound direction. 

This is a fascinating sonic undertaking from Rattle. I hope the pair move forwards on their path and evolve their art. I’d be interested to hear where it takes them.

[Don’t forget to check out my Facebook Group, The Audiophile Man: Hi-Fi & Music here: www.facebook.com/groups/theaudiophileman for exclusive postings, exclusive editorial and more!]