Recorded on the edge of the Arctic Circle, on the tiny Norwegian island of Giske – a typically oblique environment in which to track an album – from here is the fifteenth studio album from cult UK act New Model Army. The band, currently a five-piece, features Justin Sullivan (vocals & guitar), Michael Dean (drums), Dean White (keyboards), Marshall Gill (guitar) and Ceri Monger (bass), remains as uncompromising as ever, the remarkable location in which they chose to record feeding into an album that remains as atmospherically inscrutable as ever.
A keyboard drone announces opening track passing through, a track that brilliantly pairs Justin’s weathered voice against a simple, bass-heavy backdrop, the band deftly introducing new layers as the piece slowly grows around a mantra of “nothing to lose”. A stark comment on modern living, passing through is a remarkably, slow-burning introduction that swells until it breaks, only for a lone acoustic guitar to appear, leading in gargantuan, tribal percussion that drives the second half of the lengthy piece to an epic finale reminiscent of latter day Amebix. In contrast, never arriving pairs post-punk and folk, the end result being a lean, stripped-back track which, initially built around taut percussion and gritty bass, explodes into life when the guitars are finally allowed to run free. The whipcrack percussion and elegiac guitars of The weather recall latter day Anathema, the emotional resonance of Justin’s vocal delivery driven ever-forward by the taut pace and given weight by the shimmering, restrained guitar work. Exciting yet evocative, the weather is an early album highlight. It doesn’t fully prepare the listener, however, for the eerie feedback, pummelling beat and folk-infused acoustic work of the explosive end of days, a song that shows that, beneath the echoing ambience, there lies tough sinew and bone. A piece of great subtlety, despite the strong rhythms that underpin it, Great disguise benefits from a sparse arrangement that recalls Killing Joke, allowing for considerable expansion of the sonic palette as the piece coils and burns over the course of its four-minute run time. The first half of the album concludes with the rather beautiful lilting guitar of conversation, a track that benefits greatly from Ceri’s seesaw bass and Justin’s evocative lyrics.
Opening the second half, where I am is a disarmingly straight-forward lament that leads neatly to the gruelling, throbbing bass of the hard way, a track that opens with simple acoustic guitar before heading in a direction reminiscent of Peter Gabriel at his most threatening (think the rhythmic New Blood rendition of the intruder). Another album highlight emerges in the fast-paced Watch and learn, a track that opens with the sneering, dismissive line “monkey see, monkey do”; the music delivered with a punk-ish urgency that is impossible to ignore. The enigmatic Maps is grandstanding folk based around Michael Dean’s increasingly agitated percussion, Justin painting a picture in the sky as the music swirls around him. The gorgeous acoustic lament of Setting sun, with its subtle vocals and echoing lead guitar, is perfectly titled and sees the album wending its weary way towards the close. From here provides a suitably mesmerising finale, Dean White’s gentle piano drawing down the shades as it leads into a lengthy, eight-minute exercise in tension and release. It’s the perfect ending to an enigmatic album and it provides the perfect route back to reality, the listener emerging blinking into the light, suddenly conscious that nearly an hour has passed and yet the time has barely registered.
From here is one of those albums where time stands still and all that matters is the listener’s connection with the wonderfully beguiling atmospheric music that flows within. Justin’s lyrics are remarkable, as evocative as any novel, and paired with music that draws on a wide range of genres without ever settling into one easily-identifiable niche. Over nearly forty years and fifteen albums, New Model Army have remained fiercely independent and devoted only to making remarkable music, free from compromise. In from here they have, once again, created a window into another world and the results are as mesmerising as the landscape in which the album was recorded. 9.5
