I very rarely cover Scottish artists on this blog. It's not that I have anything against them. I've been to Glasgow. I've had haggis (in Glasgow). I even got a picture with the statue of the Duke of Wellington. So I'm not opposed to the country or its culture. For whatever reason, they seem to be avoiding me. I receive pitches from all over the world, but the only Scottish person who has ever written me, to my knowledge, is Ali Murray. And, before you ponder too long on my reaction to his email, I want to clarify that it was one of the nicer ones I've ever received. He's a very courteous and thoughtful fellow and these personality traits carry over to and saturate his latest album Wilderness of Life. First and foremost, I appreciate the gloomy aesthetic of the album. It's like it was recorded under a heavy overcast and the overbearing density of the atmosphere somehow fused with the tape. It's a facet of the production that lends the songs a semblance of pondering melancholy that interacts encouragingly with the lyrics. The vast majority of which hover in tense suspension over the sheer drop of a rocky shore- searching the horizon for clarity with one foot over the ledge of a cliff and the other chained to the hope of this world. While these expressions of existentialism and fleeting despair are essential to the molding of this album's sound, Wilderness is far from a passive troth of ennui. It contains a wealth of subtly propellent quantities that barter in equivalent sonic currencies to post-rock acts like This Will Destroy You in exchange with the jangly wafting shoegaze of The Evpatoria Report, all kept in continuous rotation by a safeguarding surefooted certainty borrowed from mature punk acts like the Cure and subtler shades of artists in the stratum of The Story So Far. Navigating the Wilderness of Life is possible by applying a method of finding the light as it peaks between the trees and foliage and following it home. It is a testament to Ali Murray's worldly attunements and sensibilities that he understands that such guiding beacon rays shine brightest for those who are peering through the dark.
