Giles Corey - Giles Corey

Giles Corey - Giles Corey
Genre: Folk/Alternative
Rating: 10/10

One sleeper release you won't hear much about this year is the monumentally dark Giles Corey self titled debut. Giles Corey is the brainchild of Have A Nice Life's lead singer Dan Barrett an outfit who already find themselves on the furtherst stretches of the underground music scene. This new project of Barrett's takes the name from a famous american who was killed during the Salem witch trials by being pressed to death for refusing to plea guilty or not guilty relating to charges of sorcery. Giles Corey proves a suitably grizzly moniker and image for an album that can only be described as hellishly dark and unsettling.

The music on offer throughout this record owes a lot to Barrett's time spent with Have A Nice Life, a band who produce some of the darkest shoegaze around. Giles Corey's sound however feels slightly more focused whilst maintaining the same dark atmosphere and tone. The music is fairly straight forward from start to finish and consists mostly of haunting synths and acoustic guitars with Barrett's somewhat angelic vocals murmurring over the top. Whilst this doesn't sound like enough to make an album worthy of a perfect score the level of emotional depth and the undeniable power of the songs is what really wins you over. Atmospherically the album is very well developed and real thought has gone into the sparse and lonesome tone of the songs the lyrics are sublime in places and the whole album is a haunting affair. The vocals are layered and overlapped in a similar way to Bon Iver's critically acclaimed debut but Barrett does this in his own unique way, rather than doubling up Barrett sings one line melodically whilst lining up the same line in a more raw emotional form often sounding quite tortured. Small creaks in the background, subtle synth and keyboards are used to devastating effect giving the whole record a nightmarish feel some songs also build in intensity towards huge trumpet refrains and furiously strummed guitars. The album is not short on highlights with every track working together brilliantly to make a compelling record from start to finish. Personal highlights include the immensely hushed darkness of "I'm Going To Do It" and the eerie and atmospheric interlude "Empty Churches" which features a sample of a man discussing voices of unknown origin backed up by sparse synths. Other masterstrokes are the almost uplifting, but still very creepy, "Blackest Bile" and the downright sorrowful "No One Is Ever Going To Want Me" which slowly builds to a climactic finale with trumpets blaring. I could go on and on about this hypnotizing record but the rest is best discovered on your own.

Overall Giles Corey is definitely a project to keep a watchful eye on. The material released so far showcases Dan Barrett's immense talent unbound and is one of the most raw and affecting releases this year has seen. Whilst this album will prove incredibly tough to track down due to the underground nature of the band it is more than worth the effort. Highly Recommended.

Download: "Blackest Bile" "No One Is Ever Going To Want Me"