the brilliantly
and indeed militantly-monikered NATIONAL SERVICE are still very much a four piece outfit creeping from the shadows of North London. They consist of Fintan Campbell (vocals / guitar)
Daniel Hipkin (bass / vocals)
Iain Kelly (guitar / vocals) and Matthew Alston (drums). ‘Foreign Love’ is their brand new five track EP which is fronted up by the title track
a typically brooding exploration of the tension and grace lurking within the alt.rock sonisphere .Or as they say so eloquently themselves…
"’Foreign Love’ is another quiet giant of a track from National Service. The opening is awash with warm pads and crystalline guitars
like the colour slowly draining from an old photo
the vocal pours out
intimate yet distant
remembering a time that once was. The song then gently lifts into the bands’ signature fluttering cross-rhythms and howling melancholy until the bridge - a dense
melting wall of sound.
“Calluna frontwoman Heather Britton’s larkensong vocal then haunts the reprisal of the first verse. Heard a second time it imbues the bitter
hollowed lyrical sentiment. The listener awakes amongst the smouldering ruins of a love
long since abandoned
ears ringing from its final requiem."
The ‘Foreign Love’ EP features previous singles ‘Islander’ (lush
languid) and ‘Timid Kisses’ (lurid
lunging
a Lammo fave) and new track ‘Looking For Your Lover’ which encapsulates their sense of restrained intensity. Much like an ancient Egyptian architect mulling over the precision of the pyramids
for National Service it’s all about the patient build. The EP is topped off by a suitably abstract and stirring remix of ‘Foreign Island’ itself by oldisland. |
