Grasscut/ 1 Inch/ 1/2 Mile

Grasscut
1 Inch/Half Mile
(Ninja Tune)

I was looking forwards to a break from all that terrible noisy artrock when I picked up this album: the sleeve (which is hopefully represented somewhere to the left [online ed note: right] of this writing) depicts rolling hills, a fading sunset... ah for the pastoral life.
Yet no! The first song on Grasscut's new album sounds like one of the themes from Bowie's much underrated album '1 Outside' - a record about an art-crime detective hunting a child killer. So much for relaxing with the sheep!
After this the album settles into a glitchy-electronica style atmosphere that's surrounded by peripheral thunderstorms - it's like a hopeful soundtrack for a hopeless world. Sound gloomy? Not necessarily: the entertainingly titled 'Muppet' feels like a hailstorm of computer malfunctions; it's like watching Wall Street crash and burn.
However, much of the rest of the album has a retro post-apocalyptic feel (think When The Wind Blows, or in the case of 'In Her Pride', George Orwell's 1984) but the deep and possibly deeply stoned imagination that's gone into making it is interesting nonetheless.