Sanguine Hum’s last album ‘Weight of the World’ was a very worthy 5 star effort but this release calls the marking system into question because ‘Now We Have Light’ surpasses ‘Weight …’ by many factors.
The playing is more confident, the writing more coherent and the melodies more (ouch) melodious but, most importantly, this also holds together as an album that you just want to listen to time and again, gaining more insights into the music and the minds of the writers with each pass through. It really is bloody wonderful.
It costs nothing to reveal that this is a concept album spread across 2 CDs and that it has a longer gestation period than the average Blue Whale but unlike many other long concepts the individual songs stand up on their own and the whole is not spread thinly but rather is a sumptuous feast of music. They use words to serve their concepts rather like a poet bends the language to suit the rhythms and constraints of a piece but the music seems to flow in a way that few other bands can come near.
Joff Winks vocals are faintly reminiscent of Green Gartside but they suit the music perfectly and between his guitar and Matt Baber’s keys and synth work the music flows sinuously but the rhythm section of Brad Waissmann on bass and Andrew Booker on drums are capable of turning the ship on a sixpence so that sudden acceleration or echoing voids of sound are perfectly natural and perfectly within context – no mean feat and something that takes great empathy between the bandmates. In fact, Weissmann’s bass lines are crucial for the song structures and in lesser hands it would be impossible to hold the melody down. Overall, there is a shimmering and ethereal quality to the music of Sanguine Hum and even when the music becomes strident and ‘shouty’ it still has a soft leading edge that draws the listener along.
It is rare to hear nearly an hour and a half of music that doesn’t have a moment of filler or conceit but this album is one. Sanguine Hum are one of the Prog scene’s gems and if they never produce another piece of music this would stand as a great monument to the band.
