4 / 10
Always looking out for exciting new sounds, Two Lone Swordsmen have excelled themselves once again. In a bid to make a record that is as uncomfortable as possible, Andrew Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood have incorporated some of the nation's least favourite noises into their determinedly difficult second album.
'Stay Down' is irritating. Irritating like someone else bursting bubblewrap blisters. Like Sellotape getting tangled up. Like nails scraping down a blackboard. Brilliantly, then, you can hear all these sounds and more on tracks like 'Hope We Never Surface' and 'Spine Bubbles', while Weatherall, evidently under the impression he can still fashion beauty from chaos, negotiates the space between ugly electro and linear techno. Though perhaps that's the point.
Clearly in no hurry to craft another 'Screamadelica' or to replicate the seedy funk of their former band, Sabres Of Paradise, Weatherall and Tenniswood seem happy assembling genre-eluding electronica that presents as much of a challenge to them as it does the listener. Most irritating of all, however, is the fact that, in a career notable only for its thrilling awkwardness, Two Lone Swordsmen have produced their most pointless record yet.
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