[Reviewed by Peter Marks]
It is a tale to be told, one which is played out over the course of this deliciously composed record with random abandon. You’re given a few cues to follow along to, themes if you will but these are slippery. In fact, despite the brevity, Reet Maff’l take delight in sliding in and out of focus as a matter of routine. I’m rambling here. So are they. “Is it Clearer” taunts with it’s title and splits itself between numerical outcomes as if to say “no, you won’t understand but you’re welcome to keep trying”. Adjust your vision accordingly, is this better or what about now… now, now, now, now, now. NOW.
Interactive menus are by nature prone to abuse; this pair are quite plainly tormenting the ones which they’ve created. Insane as it may be to consider there is, as stated above, a story being relayed here. Trying to follow along is where things get tricky as the sequencing of events becomes more and more distracted, going off on tangents and down roads which feel less and less defined as ‘That’ll Be’ plays out.
Picture, if you can, a bridge which disintegrates and reappears without any sort of logic, now come closer and look down. Voices and sounds come up from the formless void beneath in bursts of colorful shards which lick and lap at this immaterial structure before you… the mind tries to make sense of it until the ground around starts to liquify and there’s no choice but to try and cross to the other side. Even if success is attained only more incomprehensible activities await; the narrator rants and raves at you from an unseen vantage point up above or is it below.
Ah yes, he’s right next to you. This whole exercise has been one comprised of inexplicable paradoxes somehow collaborating, that tearing sensation is not your sanity but the fabric of reality coming apart. If none of this makes sense then all is at it should be; this kind of aggressive psychedelia pits giant rams against massive stoats while a deranged choir full of menace bellows in the background. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Reet Maff’l – That’ll Be
Bloxham Tapes, BT02
MC/Digital 2016
Santa Sangre 