There’s something magical going on the landscape in which Grice has encountered when he tackles various themes whether it’s a fictional place in the heart of Mordant Lake, or a microscopic view into the Polarchoral universe, you can’t deny the love and beauty he has poured his heart and soul into his arrangements. That and his latest album Filter, is a concept album about reflections of an age of unaccountably and diminishing humanity.
To bring this to life, he’s brought along Richard Barbieri, Steve Jansen, David Torn, Luca Calabrese, and Theo Travis to give his album life, wonder, and the hope to move forward and never looking back. And that’s what Filter is, an album of heading towards into the future and seeing where the next century will lead us into. It is challenging, yes, but it’s given an astonishing point of wonder and unexpected sceneries that’ll keep you going back more and more to see and hear of what you’ve been missing.
For instance, ‘Canticle (Fayre)’ walks into the forest with a lullaby-like quality of acoustic guitars with double-tracking vocalisations and following in the footsteps of Radiohead’s arrangements which nearly speaks of the OK Computer-era while ‘Judgement Day’ becomes a thumping alternative rock powder-keg of getting out of the tunnel and reaching the light at the end of the tunnel, with mellotrons soaring out of the sky before landing down on the ground, seeing the rain in the grey-like clouds, screaming out to the gods in its Tim Bowness-like quality for ‘Love Me Out’ and ‘Five Leaf Clover’.
The sense of loneliness hits hard as Luca Calabrese pours it out with this smoky, eerie, walk in the darkness in its 10-minute atmospheric echoing effect that I believe its either Jansen or Barbieri handling the arrangements for Luca to travel upon the howling call behind the ‘Desert Bloom.’ Meanwhile, ‘Spinning Trees’ returns to the mystical caves and going into this folk-like country composition which has never been heard of, but the bravery for Grice going beyond the four-letter P word.
He wanted to show his listeners that he’s more than just a progressive artist, but different forms of music which is evidential on the eleventh track. Filter isn’t just a powerful album for 2026, but a simple, yet moving texture that is waiting to see what lies ahead in the years to come. And it leaves us wanting more for the listener to see what Grice will think of next.
