Cleft are a rather nerdy looking two piece guitar/drum duo who reside in Manchester playing kind of math rock stuff. They delivered one of the stand out performances at last year’s Arc Tangent Festival (quite an insane achievement if you look at the line up) and have two E.P.s in their artillery which contained ton of potential. But we finally have a full length to get fired into entitled BOSH!, which is almost like something you’d say when you finished making yourself a good sandwich or found your car keys after looking for about 10 minutes. Well I’m delighted to tell you BOSH! is far more of an accomplishment than either of those things… it’s huge.
We start with ’12 Second Panda’ which has quite some delicate finger work before firing into some rather huge riffs. When you hear the term ‘math rock’ these days it’s easy to assume it’s all been done before and any new bands having a go will be dull and generic but that’s not the case at all. This feels vibrant and unique, I believe they refer to themselves as ‘Turbo Prog’ and that’s exactly what it is really. Consistently throughout the album they manage to take on a journey and just as you figured out what you are listening to it’s turned completely on its head and you have an entirely new experience on your hands.
From almost techno to speed metal before you’ve had time to slowly nod at your mate who’s sitting on the couch across from you skinning up. It sort of reminds more a stripped back and slower version of the incredible Ruins Alone album which came out a few years ago. What I really like about these chaps is they must use dozens of pedals to make all these different noises and to enhance the passages but don’t get bogged down in it and really deliver on riffs, it’s fucking heavy at times. These riffs I speak of have real substance and combined with the time changes Cleft really take it to the next level.
BOSH! is ace and full of surprises, even some vocals turn up out of the blue from Hailing’s Leaf’s Matt Franklin on ‘Elephant in the Bar Room’ which temporally makes them sounds like a noise rock band like Future of the Left, who the fuck wouldn’t want that in the mix? If you like bands such as Zolle, That Fucking Tank or Adebisi Shank then get involved at once. ‘Turbo Prog’ is exactly what they have achieved, a trip that I’m not sure our minds will ever be able to fully comprehend. Most of all it just fucking rocks!
