Born out of grief – Poppy H’s new album Treadwater Fury grows out of the idea of melancholia transforming into a form of beauty, following the artist recently losing a close relative. 12 tracks that all strive for the past of the sleeve photo, or the fact tomorrow might just be better, or at least different from today. The downbeat surfaces might initially feel sombre but in just a few listens, there is something quite gorgeous glimpsed and outlined at the heart of this music.
The guitar, piano and harmonica of the opener Eel & Pie, is music wafting through some post war London dockland. The ghost of Mark Hollis somehow sensed in the shadows as we are gently welcomed into this subtly realised new world.
Hunched Beneath Victorian Wall is a crackly piano bathed in angels, E11 to the Southern End, a fragmented sea shanty tugged at by cold sea breezes. RJHRIP is a eulogy covered in Thames silt, rolling gently off centre like a memory of Lol Coxhill and Morgan Fisher’s Que En Paz Descanse.
Who We Are Today is a stack of cavernous shadows, whilst Stone Dead is dewy cobwebs and windchimes. The extended majestic tendrils of All The Brave Faces rise like the culmination of some unknown, blossoming in waves of strings and swelling drones. Somewhere down the Road is a brief dreamy revisit of Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo by Francesco Messina. The closer Just Can’t Take Another L finally feels like the sun is shining, only to get pecked at by angular electronics.
Treadwater Fury is a finely tuned listening experience. The notes Poppy H sent with the release, states he uses his smartphone as the sole recording and mixing device here – using the in-built mic to capture improvisations, compositions and field recordings.
Who is playing, what and where these sounds came from, all feel like points on a map rather than a simple list. An aural 3D construction of places and memories.
It is undeniable that in the wrong frame of mind, this might not be that quick hit of sunshine to feel better, but in time, the experience blossoms into an engrossing suite of ghostly ambience. Poppy H’s motivations form into a tribute of sorts, there is a sense the music was cathartic to make and draws out an unexpected but undeniable beauty. A collage of places and people now gone, overlayed in dreams, memories, and the present now.
Treadwater Fury is a perplexing, square peg of an album, perhaps eventually feeling most like a soundtrack to a film we need to visualise for ourselves. Something is present here, and something is also missing, maybe listening, and maybe the listener fills that space.
Treadwater Fury is out now on cassette and digitally here
obladada.com 