Based in North Hampshire, UK, Space Church have been pushing the boundaries of minimalist noise rock and post-hardcore since 2014, gradually expanding their sound into stranger territory, from improv mutant funk and drop-A sludge to new-wave jangle. Released at the beginning of summer, ARE YOU, their third album, brings all these different sides together in a wonderfully unpredictable and atmospheric record that refuses to settle into any one particular sound.
The opening seven-minute Sticking To What You Are Good At immediately grabs attention with its extremely prominent bass riff: simple but incredibly heavy, the kind of riff you can almost feel inside your body. There is something slightly disturbing about it. The song opens with the line, “So, I have been watching the films of Jodie Foster during the day, Until she gets a telephone call from Space-Nazis,” and I was immediately hooked. I love it when lyrics go a little further than the usual clichés. Musically, the track remains fairly restrained for much of its duration before becoming heavier and more aggressive around the halfway point, eventually settling back into its original restrained atmosphere.
The following Double AA has more of a desert-like atmosphere. The production is raw and gives me a slight stoner-rock feeling, while the prominent keyboards add another dimension. The ending becomes strangely psychedelic, making it an unusual and genuinely interesting piece.
The next song first caught my attention because of its title, My Cab Is Haunted, and then immediately won me over with its Sabbath-like heavy riff. This must absolutely destroy live. The lyrics repeatedly return to the mantra-like lines, “You’re not, actually, considering listening to these guys… are you? Bank robbery is punishable by 20 years in federal prison.” For some reason, the whole thing gives me a strong Zabriskie Point vibe, perhaps partly because of the fate of the film’s main actor. More than anything, though, the music feels cinematic and distinctly Nevadan to me, despite the fact that Space Church are a British band.
Club Ruido (Dead Men Don’t Laugh) once again revolves around a very prominent bass riff, this time surrounded by psychedelic guitar effects, wah-wah textures and screaming guitars. They have an almost sinister quality that evokes the late-’60s psychedelic scene, and I absolutely love it. There is also some kind of background noise buried in the mix, which helps create the feeling that you have actually been transported into a strange club.
The next track, I Can’t Believe I Still Need More Attention, initially gives me a bit of a Caravan Planet vibe, but once the vocals enter, it shifts into something much more like a foggy Twin Peaks club somewhere deep in the woods – slightly creepy, with the feeling that something is about to happen.
I really enjoy the minimalism throughout the album and, especially, the atmospheres Space Church manage to create with so little. It feels genuinely unique. In an era when so many bands seem increasingly shaped by whatever happens to be trending online, there is something incredibly refreshing about a band taking such a distinctive approach to both sound and songwriting.
The second half of the album contains its longest track, the nearly twelve-minute Mumbo No. 666. Its dirtiness reminds me somewhat of my beloved Kyuss, while the distorted vocals occasionally push it closer to King Gizzard territory. It is heavy, raw, dirty and almost feels as though it has been covered in sand – and it is a lot of fun. Around the middle, the song suddenly stops, leaving behind only minimalist, slightly eerie sounds as you wait to find out what comes next. Gradually, increasingly noisy and even more creaking guitars begin to return, building into something genuinely massive. This is the kind of track I would play in a car on an abandoned highway, knowing the next gas station is 150 kilometers away.
A Chance to Make You Smile (Bop Sha Wop) retains the experimental and eerie atmosphere, but is a slower and more restrained piece. Once again, there is something distinctly David Lynch-like about it, almost like a strange lounge soundtrack to a scene that doesn’t quite feel safe.
The penultimate track, First Cockrow, is unusually straightforward. Its garage-rock directness actually works incredibly well, and it is a side of Space Church I really enjoy. The guitar solo around the one-minute mark is particularly great, with a loose, effortless and almost summery feel. In the context of the rest of the album, it feels like a genuinely fun little hit. But I am glad there aren’t ten tracks like this – part of the appeal of Space Church is precisely that they have so many different faces.
The album closes with Astroecclesiophobia, whose rhythm reminds me a little of Queens of the Stone Age if they had spent more time on acid. It is a wonderfully psychedelic, filthy and appropriately stoner-inflected way to end the record.
ARE YOU is a wonderfully strange and unpredictable album that moves between noise rock, stoner, sludge, psychedelia, garage rock and experimental territory without ever sounding like it is chasing a particular trend. Space Church’s minimalist approach allows their riffs, textures and strange atmospheres to do most of the work, resulting in something raw, cinematic and refreshingly difficult to categorize.
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