CLOTH

Secret Measure

(Rock Action)

Monorail Exclusive Yellow Vinyl, Limited to 300, with Signed Prints

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Instore:

FRIDAY 5th MAY

Mono

12 King Street

Glasgow

G1 5RB

DOORS: 8:30

We’re currently buzzing with excitement in anticipation of Cloth’s album launch this Friday. The group are going to be performing a live in-store to celebrate Secret Measure and with it swimming in the cans right now, I can tell you it’s an album worth celebrating.

Secret Measure builds  elegantly on Cloth’s debut while welcoming some new influences that, while pointing to the exits, firmly cement the group in the Glasgow slow-core tradition. The Swinton twins’ approach to songwriting has always been built on an emotional minimalism and the title-track opener is a big statement of intent. With producer Ali Chant at the desk, the group’s vision is blown out into cinematic widescreen. Paul Swinton’s guitar work, a balanced mix of pinched harmonics, minor-key, spidery lines and oblique, rhythmic forms provide the canvas that vocalist Rachael Swinton paints on to. The result is massive sounding, filled with space and poignancy.

Understated, shrouded in whisper at points, Rachael’s voice is tempered with restraint and coiled, emotional heft. On Pigeon she intones to “keep it simple,” to chiming layers of guitar and a newly muscular rhythm section backing. Paul’s guitars feel like they could be hewn from your favourite Kentucky records of the late 90s (The For Carnation, Shipping News, Rodan) but polished with a distinct, Rock Action central belt dark sheen. Sometimes Cloth appear to slot into the Chemikal Underground / Rock Action lineage of Glaswegian gloom-core, but there’s a glowing warmth and hope at the heart of Secret Measure which remains undimmed by the weight of geographical canon.

On Ladder, a soft snare backing cuts across a heavy bass synth that suggests rhythm in the same way early records by The XX do. A track like Drips burnishes Paul’s guitar wizardry reminding us of 4th World Ambient music, all filtered swells and echoes wistfully drifting across the stereo field. Album closer “Blue Space” feels genuinely sad, Rachael’s tale of disintegrating relationships, ghosts, her voice reaching new levels of fragility. The lyrics remain just out of plain sight, the literal meanings shifting underneath the delivery but the emotional meaning is crystal clear.

We’re extremely excited to have the band in-store on Friday 6th May for an instore. You can buy an album/ticket bundle, stand-alone tickets for the instore or an LP/CD stand-alone if you can’t make it to the show. The Monorail Exclusive Yellow Vinyl of Secret Measure is limited to 300.

This is a special, glowing, gently powerful record by a special group.

Michael/Monorail