Modern Nature, that post-punk super-group, featuring Jack Cooper (Ultimate Painting), Will Young (BEAK>), Aaron Neveu (Woods), and Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers), have dropped an unexpected gift on listeners. This new EP, Annual, came out to not enough fanfare last Friday, and it is, as you can imagine, every bit as bold and progressive (in the very real sense) as any release from this lot so far.
Annual is thematically-connected, with the pieces of this EP interlocking and continuing a mood for the course of the release. "Flourish" and "Mayday" feel familiar, bringing in touches of Talk Talk and Traffic as we've heard in earlier tracks from this group, while "Halo" be-bops along over skittering drums and percussive elements from Jeff Wallis and sax bursts from Jeff Tobias. Part jazz, this is mostly iconoclastic indie, and the equal of lots of what was on the first two releases from Modern Nature.
It is closer "Wynter" that suggests a great passion bubbling under the surface, things barely contained as the composition expands in interesting directions under the passionate, and quietly breathy vocals. Modern Nature make music like that that, despite the name-checks in my reviews, really stands apart from so much of what else passes for indie-rock in 2020. In that sense, Annual is yet another essential offering from this band. And it's one which gently enlarges the scope of the Modern Nature sound without disturbing too much the very thing that drew us to this group's art in the first place.
Annual is out now via Bella Union.
More details on Modern Nature via the band's official website, or official Facebook page.
[Photo: Bella Union]