Beak 'Beak>' (Invada) 26/10/09

When you move to other places, it's best not to sound like there's still a part of your old home in you. Geoff Barrow is the focal point of BEAK> a Bristol-based project united in the goal to record thought-provoking, wide-ranged music. Barrow is very much the central figure due to his work most recently with The Horrors' on sound-reciprocating breakthrough 'Primary Colours' and his very own Portishead's stunning 2008 record 'Third'. What's achieved here is whilst the eerie atmosphere of the aforementioned is replicated, that's about all that is. BEAK> is an altogether new dimension, although Barrow and co. could have done with borrowing a few more elements from the previous projects.

What settles so well within Portishead's and The Horrors' work is the combination of this pit of darkness with a knack for fine, driven melody, melodies of which are scarcely found on this self-titled debut. Ever-growing 'Battery Point', a post-rock-influenced inclusion, showcases a beautiful melody, 'Blagdon Lake' boasts the same albeit a little less obviously. But the majority of 'BEAK>' settles for monotonous self-indulgence and said immersion is this record's greatest asset, but also its biggest weakness.

Much of the decadent adventuring can be linked towards the fact that the recording process was all guns blazing, 12 songs thrown into the mix in the ice cold weeks of January this year, a sort of anything goes approach. The immediacy of the recording is engrossed in the final result, allowing the listener to feel involved in the obvious sense of fun (serious fun) that evolved when making the record. Contrast this to Portishead's 'Third', an album that was famed for the amount of time it took to make. Barrow, alongside Matt Williams and Billy Fuller (of Fuzz Against Junk) came together with loose ideas and largely left with something similar. 'BEAK>' is anything but a complete record, but in its empty spaces and dramatic climaxes you find yourself hyptonised throughout.

Ironic statement as this might be, there isn't much of a point to BEAK>. It is merely a bit on the side for all members involved, a clashing and merging of detached thoughts, all somehow morphing into something coherent and together. To appreciate all of what 'BEAK>' has to offer is a steep hill to climb and an altogether unrewarding trek. But like all of Barrow's best works there is this wonderful blend of stuttering ambience with on this occasion, a seldom exposed melody.