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While listening to the anguished notes of this Elegies To Lessons Learnt, the debut album of the British iLiKETRAiNS, the Black Heart Procession came to mind. But not so much for the type of music, although there are indeed some common points, but more for the atmosphere that these Englishmen know how to create. They are from Leeds like the Kaiser Chiefs, but all they share with them is the city, because the music is completely different. As I mentioned above, they reminded me of the Black Heart Procession for the atmospheres; let's add the dilated times and instrumental progressions of Mogwai, and throw in a pinch of Sigur Ros (the producer is the same Ken Thomas). The music of these guys is the offspring of the gray English days, those days when the rain mixes with your tears and wets your face.
A guitar with a vague Shoegaze flavor introduces "We All Fall Down", David Martin's voice slips in on tiptoe with his baritone tone, then the guitar and drum textures intertwine in a circular crescendo that explodes at the end. "Twenty Five Sins" tells us about a fire that struck London in the 1600s, starting like a sort of funeral march, where the drums and voice dominate. At one point, a guitar with a noise flavor intervenes with a small solo, only to return to the same atmosphere with which the song began with the phrase "This Town Is Burning Down". "The Deception" is perhaps the most blatantly post-rock song, obviously always a post-rock in dark tones. The over nine minutes of "Spencer Percival" are the apex of the record, a journey into the dark world of iLiKETRAiNS, where David Martin's voice takes us by the hand like a new Virgil to guide us. Also noteworthy is the minimal "Come Over" and the slow and refined "Death Is The End", placed at the end of the album, where the desolate voice of David Martin is assisted by precious piano notes to reach the end of an album difficult to digest, but not therefore to be avoided.
iLiKETRAiNS have come out with a very interesting first chapter, probably listening to the entire work for ears not quite accustomed to certain sounds might be burdensome, but surely lovers of music dressed in black will delight in listening to the notes of this work.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
09 Spencer Perceval (09:09)
You could have saved yourself
I gave you more than one chance
"I am murdered, I am murdered," you cried
Well, well, you could have survived
I will rot, a broken man
In this green and pleasant land
Your position can't save you now
(Your position can't save you)
You were the finger on my trigger
And the rope around my neck
As you were as well
You could have saved yourself
I gave you more than one chance
"I am murdered, I am murdered," you cried
Well, well, if the truth be told
It is I that will meet my demise at your hands Mr Perceval
I am murdered
You will hang a guilty man in England's green and pleasant land
Your position (You were the rope around my neck)
Can't save you now (You were the finger on my trigger)
Your position can't save you now (You were the rope around my neck)
Your position can't save you now
As the bullet flies, you cannot hide behind
Your position (You were the rope around my neck)
Can't save you now (You were the finger on my trigger)
Your position can't save you now (You were the rope around my neck)
Your position can't save you now (You were the finger on my trigger)
Your position can't save you now
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