Posset

‘Friction Rivers’ by Posset (cassette), now sold out.

“Posset’s Friction Rivers actually dates 2014 from but it gets an honorary mention here because, well you can never have too much Joe Murray, right? An opening quiver of guitar-ey twangs and rumbles signals a slightly more open-ended grab-bag of tunes than some of the more tightly-scripted Posset outings of late (the fantastic Gratitude Vest in particular). But fear not, a cornucopia of Dictaphone scramblings is available for your enjoyment across the two sides of this tape. There’s a great section of overloaded, animalistic burps and ruminations about halfway through the first side, which leads me to think that Farmer Murray may have left his tape machine in the barn at milking time, but before you can let fly with any dad-jokes about it being moo-sick to our ears, we cut to a close-up rendering of goblinoid splutters and whispers. Less bucolic, more subterranean, my precious.

Basically, all your Posset needs are addressed here, from identifiable vox chop-up to finely-ground tape slurry, with the occasional non-larynx instrument wheeze to brighten the corners. The nightmarish ferric warp that opens side B is a current highlight, but it’s all good, people, and an ideal way to plug any Murray-shaped holes on your shelf.”

popsmargree, we need no swords, april 2017