This came as a double album I and II so there’s a lot to go at. The titles of these instrumental pieces are succinct: Hope – Dreams – Sorrow – All – Fear – Grief – None – Truth – Love. Having looked up this band, “All” is the follow-up to their 2017 album “South”.
After a vocal sample, the album gets going with a bright and luxurious post-rock of “Hope”. It holds together nicely and is pleasant to listen to. Electronic waves provide the transition into the colourful and lively guitar strains that make “Dreams”. It’s nice to hear post-rock that sounds like fun instead of the serious intensity that can go with the genre. At this stage November Might Be Fine (NMBF) put the rock into post-rock, you could say. The jollity does die down as the song becomes deeper and more sensitive. There is an accompanying lyric sheet, not that for the most part there are any lyrics. Nor do they convey obvious meaning “Night highway, Brno, Fail to stand up, A crawl”, reads “Dreams”. “Sorrow” lives up to its name but is very short. To this point I hadn’t sensed a sorrowful album in “All”. What is clear is that NBBF treat their subjects with sympathy.
The mood changes with the title song. Slightly doomy, a long hypnotic or unbending, depending on how you look at it, post-rock passage emerges. Midway through this twelve-minute slab, there are signs of expanse and life. “All” has the delicacy and power that you’d associate with a post-rock track but I felt they stuck to a formula here, where up to now they hadn’t. Delicate guitar work intriguingly accompanies an electronic pulse as “Fear” begins its fourteen-minute journey. An indistinct voice can be heard speaking in the background. The quiet tones bring tension to the scene. “Fear” has nice movement. The soothing sound threatens to break up. A dynamic passage follows. A monotone section with a droning siren holds the position for a while. The gradual increase of intensity can be felt. A layer of depth is added, and there is majesty and drama in the air. It’s like a relentless march. “Fear” is a great and powerful way to end the first part of this work.
So to the second part we go and we have “Grief”. Whispered growls accompany a gloomy score. Without doubt NBMF know how to develop ambience in their post-rock way, and so “None” transforms subtly from its sultry beginning into a lush soundscape. Soft clean harmonies enter the fray, with growled spoken vocals being superimposed as the instrumentals make their steady progress. The expressiveness reminds me a lot of the underrated Italian band At the Sounddawn. The similarity lies in the movement from one vivid landscape to another. Here on “None” NMBF make beautiful sounds as they paint their instrumental pictures and absorb us, eventually cranking up the intensity and presenting a turbulent scene which manages to retain great power and dignity. Extracts of the text read: “Dear dad, today is the day when I will admit, when I say you will understand and then you will see that being your son is hard to be … forgive me, believe in me I say, you’ll see that I deserve to be”. I didn’t get the connection between this and the vividly colourful sounds from “None”, I confess, but it’s a striking listening experience. “Truth” is moody and intriguing. Listening to it is like gazing through mist and wondering. Again I felt the tension and growing intensity. The sound not only expands but becomes richer. The constancy and control of post rock are matched by burgeoning power which passes through our veins. The drum beats sombrely and irregularly. A disturbed electronic wave resounds. The final piece “Love” sets off along a sad, haunting and shady path, captured in the opening line “Memories of lights and staggering heights, still holding on, never really gone”. The quiet vocals reminded me of the Beatles in a reflective mode. Each of the nine pieces of this album adopts a different stance. This one is at the melancholic end. As ever NMBF develop the scene and surround it with colour and expression.
NMBF noted that this album was “recorded through tough times 2021-2023 but it was a relief”. I’m so glad they made it. “All” comes across as far more than relief. Its level of expression through transforming post-metal structures, vivid musical shapes and soundscapes is outstanding. “All” captivated me from beginning to end and took over my mind, which is quite an achievement for an 87-minute album.
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
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