Dumbsaint is a band whose music is accompanied by film. Having just this album to listen to I didn’t get the benefit of that. But you can get five videos as a download with this hour-long instrumental post rock work. I’ll just use my imagination, which is absolutely fine.

“Rivers Will be Crossed” starts off our journey. Imbued with the trademark post rock tinkle, it is slow burn but dreamy and a little bit mysterious. Only at the end does it take on a darker edge. Drums continue to pop but more harshly as “Cinematic” starts like experimental warfare, transforming into more mellow but still ominous territory. Here I probably could have done with a visual prompt as “Cinematic” worked backwards and forwards without much apparent direction. Psychedelia is more the name of the game with “Lying in Sin”. The background could be from “Space Ritual”. The foreground is a more urgent cry – not a great mix, I thought – until about half way through it slows down and quietly progresses before bursting into urgency again with fuzz rock tones. I didn’t find this mysterious. I found it mystifying. I wasn’t getting anything out of this, so to try and get some balance I looked out for some videos to see if they might bring me some illumination. I was unable to find any for “Cinematic” or “Lying in Sin” but I did find one for “Don’t Forget to bring Down the Sky”. As far as I could see it involved moody reflection and sharp movements but nothing to bring me that enlightenment. The track itself is moody and atmospheric, raising the bar to something melancholic at one point but not enough to truly engage me. The musicianship is good, which brings this above the level of looking at wallpaper, I suppose.

The spoken word accompanies the patterings of “Int. A Cheerless Room. A Man is Scared”. There is the sound of sirens, but I don’t know why. This track has a film theme style about it with its inclination towards drama and its decidedly dark edge. It has a tinge of excitement but even with the narrative I couldn’t get where this was coming from. I much preferred the dreamier and lush “Inwaking”, which reminded me of the opener “Rivers Will be Crossed”. The rhythm is like a heartbeat, picking up in intensity, while the ring of the guitar adds delicacy before the sound expands. “She Was His” is eleven minutes of heavy intensity but again it didn’t really present any story or vivid image to me. I rather preferred the mellower tracks which were more expressive. “I Am an Image” starts in this vein. Without blowing me out of the water, it’s a pleasant listen with a good build-up. But listening to it made me reflect on the fact that I need a point of reference, whether it’s handed to me on a plate or it’s in my imagination, and I just didn’t have one when listening to these eight pieces on this album.

So something I will feel will find its own form? The problem here was that I felt nothing for most of the time I listened to it. Dumbsaint clearly have something in mind and play with intent and intensity but for me this was going through some strange motions. I just could not find the heart, soul or purpose that may lurk within “Something You Will Feel Will Find Its Own Form”.

(4/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/dumbsaint

https://birdsrobe.bandcamp.com/album/something-that-you-feel-will-find-its-own-form