Review: The Breedling ‘Detritus’

The East Anglian Fens have a tendency to divide people. There are those who admire the landscape for its eco-diversity and the richness of its wetland wildlife. Those who look with interest on the history of the area, from bronze age ritual landscapes, or the magnificence of Ely Cathedral, to the ingenious drainage systems that reclaimed impressively fertile soil from the water that covered it.

The Fens are not short of a good tale or two either; whether the story of Saint Guthlac being tormented by demons or the tale of Hereward the Wake outwitting the Norman invaders before being betrayed by a rogue monk. All good stuff.

Then there are those who take a different line. Mrs Green, for example. Whenever we pass through the flat expanse comprising that bit of the world, she can’t wait to be away from the low sky, the tall narrow banks on which cars travel round twisty corners above steep drops into deep dykes. Then there’s the isolation. There’s little human company in much of Fenland.

I suspect that The Breedling (also known as Chris Spalton) sees, knows, and loves all of this, his sophomore offering Detritus giving the listener a chance to look below the surface of the field drain at what folktales, lore and bloody events lost to history, lie there waiting to surface.

Detritus follows on from 2023’s Irukandji and continues to draw inspiration from the indomitable nature of the Fens. Indeed, The Breedling takes his nom de musique from an insular tribe of ‘semi-amphibious savages’ struggling to survive in this inhospitable country – ‘a people apart and proud of it.’

This is an album that tempts the listener in with an accessible – if foreboding – melody, there are tunes in there! But once in, don’t settle back, there’s plenty of unpleasantness to look forward to, much to be delectably discomfited with.

the threatening dread of noisy electronica with a palette of sounds that put me in mind of Amethyst Deceivers era Coil…

The Wake Takes Flight combines the threatening dread of noisy electronica with a palette of sounds that put me in mind of Amethyst Deceivers era Coil, underpinned by a thready beat that guides us through the Fenland morass. The aforementioned dread is a leitmotif to which we return at regular intervals.

Sky Burial builds foreboding drones of synthetic throat singing over a hypnotic industrial rhythm augmented by more orchestral sounding percussion. Indeed, it’s the use of rhythm and percussive sound that elevates Detritus above a lot of the electronica that I listen to. There’s an old school industrial vibe to some of it – and, y’know, that I mean this in a positive way. I like layered drones as much as the next man (alright, more, a lot more than the next man) and adding throbbing propulsion to the work gives it an impetus not found in more ‘ambient’ based work.

What’s more, by breaking the rhythmic imperative, Spalton has us staggering when our footing through the sonic marshland has just been found. The stuttering beat of Slaughter At Stonea (which at times has a flavour of late ‘90s Techstep, again, this is a good thing) unsettles us, not allowing ourselves to relax into the complacent consistency offered by the straightforward pounding. The use of conflicting, stuttering rhythmic devices has good precedence – see Psychic TV – and can be singularly perturbing for the listener.

Confession’s pseudo-symphonic horn sound is an unusual yet brilliant choice, standing proud as it does above a cinematic soundscape. The points at which the horns act as a counterpoint to the beat had me returning to this track just to have my equilibrium disturbed, which I think you’ll agree, is something we all need now and again.

With Detritus, Chris Spalton has once again peeled back the layers of everyday respectability and normalcy that is everywhere around us here on this little isle. He has shown us what we can find when we dare to peep beneath the watery surface, rather than gaze at the self-satisfied reflection we see before us. It might not be pretty but by the Gods it’s good stuff.

Label: Wrong Speed Records
Band Links: Official | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: George Green