CRAVEN FAULTS レコード& CD

Review: It's always been hard to pigeonhole the modular and analogue-driven work of mysterious Yorkshire-based producer Craven Faults. Seemingly rooted in the electronic hypnotism of mid-70s Krautrock, but also informed by contemporary techno, the cyclical musical movements of American minimalism, and the cutting-edge experiments of the San Francisco Tape Music Centre, the producer's lengthy epics as are magical as they are mesmerising. Further proof of their majesty arrives via Live Works, a double-pack containing performance recordings of a quartet of catalogue cuts, including one - the gently pulsing, pleasingly atmospherics 'Ravelands Brow' - that has never seen the light of day before. Beguiling and brilliant in equal measure.

Review: Craven Faults follows up a trio of sold-out EPs starting in 2020 with a second full-length album. It is another record that moves the artist's story onwards with fantastic analogue electronic sounds that take us across the north of Britain, all viewed through 100 years of popular music. Standers again finds him honing his craft across meticulous tracks that paint vivid pictures of everything from Norse influences to piano drones. It is bleak but beautiful experimental music with a storytelling narrative and absorbing undercurrent.

Review: Standers is the second album by anonymous musician Craven Faults, amounting to a pilgrimage through sound to the ancient stone monuments that dot the region of northern England - known as standing stones or standers. Using vintage synthesizers and tape machines, the producer plunges the depths of English folk mysticism, coinciding with the nascent pagan revival that has cropped up in recent times. Sonically, meanwhile, each track moves through cinematic pulses, arpeggiating and filter-sweeping through nods to different eras and years; 1213, 1908, 1966.