The Atlantic Manor – The World Beneath This World Is Brightening (Do Too Records) Having reviewed the 2009 album, Slow Drugs And Other Sorrows, here quite recently (and loved it straightaways), I was expecting, and hoping, for more of the same. I was not disappointed, for R. Sell and his associates deliver another hour of gentle slowcore, where the music has been basted with a sombre brew, but this time with an added marinade that takes the music past melancholy to the edge of menace on occasion – and it is the better for it. After the first track “Openings” (a toddler talking / singing with guitar accompaniment), the levity is submerged with quiet blasts of darkness. “Vessels” gives us “Black Sky Day… Feeling ok… Lost in the grey… And cold as a trench”. “The Captain’s Name Was Death” is another case in point with lines like “Black scrapes the starless sky”, and is followed by “Deathcrown” (“Spies in your head… Had you swallow your heart”); sombre stuff indeed. More upbeat (lyrically if not in tempo) are the two closing numbers, “The Good Son” and “Black River Runs”, both delivering their message with a ‘blue sky’ lightness when compared to the previous darkly riveting tracks. So, quite a forlorn meal you may think, but there is a sheer beauty that runs through all of this music that makes it so palatable. These songs may be deep, dark and even forbidding on occasion, but they have an absolute allure that sustains and rewards the listener. You might need more than one bite at this cherry, but it will be this second bite that rewards all those who found the flavour a little too bitter the first time around. www.theatlanticmanor.com Kev A. Next