Jumble Hole Clough ~ Raising The Nap

A recent railway journey took your correspondent through the heart of English industry, now scarcely recognisable from the thriving centre it was fifty years – if that – ago. Buildings which housed all manner of machinery are now reduced to a few walls and no roof, the windows having been smashed out long ago. It’s a scene that exists all over post-industrial Britain, but it’s ubiquity doesn’t make it any less thought-provoking, especially when these old blasted shells sit alongside bright, shiny yet distinctly temporary-looking new offices. It’s arguably scenes like this that moved Colin Robinson of Block 454 to record Raising The Nap, which was inspired by the former mills in and around Hebden Bridge, the small Yorkshire town he now calls home.

Apart from the occasional clank and rattle, however, there’s little in the music that connects it to these hollowed-out monuments that were once the lifeblood of the community and at first it all seems a little bit laid-back and calming. There is a introspective nature to the guitar arpeggios and loops that Robinson uses, the overall effect being not dissimilar to Roman Roads by Land Observations – a record which also seeks to capture the feeling of an England long gone. But it becomes apparent that there’s enough edginess and uncertainty throughout Raising The Nap which gives it a sense of disquiet that Roman Roads doesn’t have. “The Air Of The Mill Is Clouded With Fly”, for example begins with familiar guitar loops before turning in on itself, breaking down to a single tone and almost sputtering to a conclusion; perhaps the entire passage of the weaving industry captured in seven minutes.

The initial impression of Raising The Nap being a polished, somewhat peaceful album is undercut on subsequent listens as the darker tones on the record push their way into the consciousness. It becomes a more powerful statement that way – not merely capturing the empty buildings themselves but mourning those who worked there.  (Jeremy Bye)

Available here