The best thing about a Grice album is that whatever is delivered, quality is assured. Mordant Lake continues the current trend of an album with eight songs, which range from simple constructions to multi-layered compositions. The production values are high. Mordant Lake is a descriptive in the dyeing industry, though Mordant can also mean sarcastic, or wittedly sharp, though it may reference the latter I prefer to believe that it is the stable dye environment where each song represents the fixed end result.
To quote Grice: “MORDANT LAKE – a fictional place captured on early salt and silver photographs and viewed through a flickering Kinetoscope. Sanctified ground to heal the broken wings & hide the broken things. A pool of tears where a tragic history is reflected. The arrow maybe broken but the memory stains, the crimson waters of Mordant lake. Inspired by all lake pigments, colours and their associated mordants.”
The first two tracks remind me of a couple of Daniel Lanois albums that he put out around the time when he was producing U2. They exhibit a sparseness in their production that gives each song room to breathe and Grice’s voice is pure and clear allowing you to hang on the subtle nuances of each song. Mordant Lake opens with guitar and a variety of rhythms, drum, tambourine, and I think banjo? And although Mordant Lake does not resemble The Eagles Journey of the Sorcerer, it does have a similar sense of spaciousness, ending with an a capella outro that is just sublime.
Normally I do not like songs that repeat the same lines over and over, deeming it lazy song writing, but in this case I admit I am wrong. Offer You is the bite my tongue and review my opinion – as here changes of inflection offers different interpretation to repeated lines, there is depth, and combined with those clear production values, offers greater insight. Few artists are able deliver this subtlety placing Grice amongst those that attract and hold my attention – Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant to name two. Art or classy pop, it is intelligent music. I would love to hear a Gabriel/Grice collaboration, both artists provide food for thought, and if there is a precedent, then I would point Big Blue Ball where Peter G created material with Karl Wallinger.
Karl was the first single release from the album; a tribute to Karl Wallinger, World Party, The Waterboys, who sadly passed away 10th March 2024 from a stroke, a sad loss. He will be remembered by some for writing She’s The One, a number one for Robbie Williams. Grice’s contribution evokes both World Party & Mike Scott’s The Waterboys, it is a beautiful pastiche or parody of Karl’s work, though the term parody is a poor term for a great piece of writing, any source clearly identified with reference to The Whole Of The Moon.
A fine tribute.
Ghost Dance (Shed My Skin) takes us down the indie path with jangly treble high guitars, a solid bass line and a very progressive music style keyboards solo. The ambient sounds that inhabit the track add texture, not entirely hidden in the mix, are delightful. From the first listen this track seems destined for aural longevity.
How Long continues along the guitar thread although much more acoustic than Ghost Dance, it leans more towards a ballad. Collectively the tracks of Mordant Lake seem to look inward finding a map of self-explorations. Voices, the second pre-album release returns to the repeated line scenario delivered in multiple ways, playing on rhythms, beats, and riffs, it is an ear worm gem, it rocks out, solid without being brash, and once heard hard to forget. I was a little ‘Spinal Tap’ with this track, turning it up to eleven, a positive change from the neighbours 1980’s power ballads.
The album’s long track, Silent Thunder (Reprise), clocking just over nine minutes. As a dish served, it is the main course where you reach for the bread roll to wipe up and stray bits, so a repast rather than a reprise. Here and indeed throughout the album the harmonies are wonderful. Nine minutes forty seconds just does not feel long enough. It is like some of the dreamier Beatles tracks and deserves to share such company. I asked why reprise; it was written a number of years ago as part of a project called “The Burning Martyrs” and featured Grice’s brother (credit as Jim Iz), where Jim provided harmonies. The current version is new interpretation; Grice has not sung with his brother for a number of years, and track represents an emotional revisit.
End of the Mountain which closes the recording is not unlike the albums first track Mordant Lake, spacious dreamscapes to lose yourself in, a short instrumental that makes you want to listen again. And it is beautiful…
“The album is dedicated to all tribes who have been (and continue to be) forcibly displaced, and who remain stateless.”
TRACK LISTING
01. Mordant Lake (3:37)
02. Offer You (5:51)
03. Karl (5:03)
04. Ghost Dance (Shed My Skin) (4:56)
05. How Long (3:36)
06. Voices (5:35)
07. Silent Thunder (Reprise) (9:40)
08. End Of The Mountain (2:16)
Total Time – 40:34
MUSICIANS
Grice – Vocals, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Harmonica, Tzouras, Mellotron, Moog, Keys, Percussion
Robert Brian – Drums
Al Swainger – Bass
B J Cole – Pedal Steel Guitar
~ With:
‘Jim Iz’ – Vocals (7)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Hungersleep Productions
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 5th July 2024