Making The World A Better Place
With Folly, Manchester’s Engineers offer an immensely deep mini-album that harks back to 1990s indie. This six track EP is one of those records that, every time you put it on, ends much too quickly. They tell us that they don’t sound like anything current, and they aren’t lying to us. There is an experimental feel that comes from the deep, dreamy stream of sound, underlined with laid-back bass parts and pulled onwards by the drummer Sweeney. Despite every member of the band offering their vocal skills at some point on the album, a distinct vocal sound remains. This is a soft, almost whispered voice, tailor-made for those relaxation tapes. As each song on Folly ends, you are left with an uncomfortable feeling that perhaps the song never happened, and you have simply imagined the last few minutes of your life. It is given, then, that these are not songs you will be singing in the shower tomorrow morning, however they are songs that you will want to play again, just to ensure you actually heard them.
Folly begins with the pulseless sounds of ‘A Given Right’ which introduce the listener to the relaxing qualities of Simon Phipps’ voice. Perhaps the introduction has been dragged out here, perhaps not, but the song soon cascades into a lazy celebration of sound, dragged along its course by equally lazy percussion. As ‘Forgiveness’ begins, I find myself thankful for a definable pulse, a bassline and confident percussion with some idea of its direction. This is the standout track here, or a least the track that will appeal most to the proletariat.
‘Come In Out Of The Rain’ is the current single, and is another percussion-led piece, built above dancing guitar sounds. It progressively builds itself up and ignites in its glorious chorus, before beginning again from scratch, like some kind of beautiful musical phoenix. Despite the suggestion made by the vocal style, ‘Come In Out Of The Rain’ does not project a melancholy air, but instead manages to remain relatively cheerful against all the odds. ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, apparently a cover of a Tim Hardin song, sees a defined difference in style from the last song. There is minimal percussion, a defined guitar part and, of course, drummer, Sweeney, on vocals. Perhaps this is the genius of the album, breaking up the swirling sounds of the other five tracks with something of this nature. A worrying fact is that ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ is the b-side on the ‘Come In Out Of The Rain’ single; to me, this suggest a lack of repertoire.
‘Nature’s Editing’ returns to the sounds of the earlier songs, especially track 1, with the pulse proving pretty elusive, albeit not as elusive as ‘A Given Right’. This is a perfect example of a song which you could believe never happened. It seems to dissolve into ‘Pictobug’ much too quickly. ‘Pictobug’ is the epic final track. It begins with an unidentifiable swooping before the Engineers sounds find their way in. First a bassy progression upon which all manner of experimental sound can be layered. There are hints of voices, but no actual vocals here. This continues for seven beautiful minutes, the sounds gently flowing around your head and massaging your soul. The album leaves you with a feeling that perhaps the world isn’t such a bad place and whatever manner of subliminal advertising has been employed here compels you to press play and start from ‘A Given Right’ again.