77. Birds In Row - "Gris Klein"

Our second bunch of French experimentalists (and, spoiler, they won’t be the last), Birds in a Row are currently doing highly interesting things within the usually safe territories of post-rock. They seem to work on two separate levels, the top layer is harsh and brittle, fuelled by course vocals. I would love to tell you who the vocalist is but they never let on, instead opting to operate as a collective with no details given about the individual members. Below the crust there is another layer, this is actually much more melodic and seems to borrow generously from 80’s jingling jangly indie. There are times in “Gris Klein” when these two facets of Birds in a Row’s world seem to operate as entirely separate entities but then there are moments where they combined together to create an awesome miss-mash of contrasting styles. I’m sure that these layers have their layers, as this is a highly complex and intricately constructed album. This is a record where at 5 or 6 listens I am still not yet to do it justice.