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Beak>, >>>

Beak>>>>

Beak>->>>

This album surprised me. It surprised me, in fact, at every turn and within every single song. Throughout its course it defies every expectation it has set up, and invites the listener down wildly winding paths of intrigue. An experimental, Krautrock-influenced indie rock band founded by Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Beak> engage more fully with song structure on this album but also continuously veers off into the unknown. Often music this “interesting” and unpredictable becomes impermeable or loses itself in abstraction, but Beak>’s third studio album exhilarates and engages as much as it fascinates. Only six of the ten songs have words, and I am not the easiest sell on instrumentals, but in this case they hit the spot. Highlights: “King of the Castle,” “Allé Sauvage,” “When We Fall”

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