Warp Records
2005
Fires In Distant Buildings
About This Album
On Fires in Distant Buildings, Gravenhurst flesh out their starkly lovely fusion of British folk, dream pop, and electronica with full-fledged drums, electric guitars, and even denser electronic atmospheres. Though this is something of a departure from Gravenhurst's earlier work, it's not such a huge change from Nick Talbot's general modus operandi: his '90s band, Assembly Communications, worked with similarly hazy textures, and the shoegaze/post-rock elements on display here recall influences (and fellow Bristol-based acts) like Flying Saucer Attack and its offshoot, Movietone. Though Fires in Distant Buildings' sonics are more expansive, the overall feel and striking songwriting are just as haunting as they were on Gravenhurst's earlier work. The band's namesake -- an eerie imaginary world that Talbot created and is inspired by -- is still populated by "murdering f*ckheads," but if works like Black Holes in the Sand and Flashlight Seasons chronicled its countryside, then Fires in Distant Buildings soundtracks its cities. "Down River"'s electronic percussion and lashings of distorted guitar evoke a big yet claustrophobic urban landscape, while "The Velvet Cell Reprise" expands on the feeling of racing through city streets in the dead of night.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4 and 8)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.