The Left Outsides are a hard act to pin down. Comprising husband\/wife duo of violinist\/ vocalist Alison Cotton and guitarist\/vocalist Mark Nicholas, they merge dissonant, ritualistic drone (Cry Of The Hunter) with the narcotic fug of shoegaze (One Step At A Time) and the bucolic swoon of folk rock (Into The Deep) \u2013 and that\u2019s just the first three tracks of their excellent new album. These might be the main strains of their sound, but The Left Outsides are at their best when collapsing these distinctions.<\/p>\n
Time Makes A Fool Of Us All is a long-form atmospheric piece that sounds like Coil re-imagining Shirley Collins\u2019 version of Plains Of Waterloo with wordless vocals interrupted by abrupt, percussive detonations and searing electric guitar. Under Noonday Sun is a garage rock stomper with minor key moodiness opening up to Owsley Sunshine vocal harmonies and backwards guitar. Civil War Lament is a cover of a Grant McLennan song about stoically moving through the routine defeats of everyday life.<\/p>\n
For all their variety, they\u2019re arguably at their best when at their most opaque, as on album closer Creeping Fog \u2013 an uneasy violin and e-bow-led dronescape with a drum machine tapping a forlorn tattoo through the murk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Left Outsides are a hard act to pin down. Comprising husband\/wife duo of violinist\/ vocalist Alison Cotton and guitarist\/vocalist Mark Nicholas, they merge dissonant, ritualistic drone (Cry Of The Hunter) with the narcotic fug of shoegaze (One Step At A Time) and the bucolic swoon of folk rock (Into The Deep) \u2013 and that\u2019s just the first thr\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"issue":[10093],"class_list":["post-193426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","issue-january-2018"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n