A new EP from Manchester indie quartet Diving Station, evoking time, season and nature.

1.Joanna. The opening track is mysterious and claustrophobic, with the band inhabiting a recurring pattern of bass, subtle guitar and brushed drums with occasional extra layers from their distinctive Celtic harp (Clàrsach). As on the whole EP the instrumentation is restrained, untreated and perfectly complements the ambience of the songs. The lyric is intense and impressionistic as it portrays the title character ‘…..I dissociate and I put off, Joanna sings of silks and cloth…..she weaves a string, across the sheet, she sends my blood, back to my feet…’, as the words and music circle around in an atmosphere of relaxed dissonance.

2. Fruit Flies. A sensuous evocation of summer warmth and storms, it reads well as a poem but when delivered by the relaxed voice of singer Anna McLuckie the picture is fully painted. ‘….there’s an August shower, that’s unwinding foxtails in the grass……fruit flies on fruit….’.

As the time gently spirals there is plenty more imagery weaving through the track ‘…..air thick, cornflour, clouds swell with dew…..’ . Again the production leaves plenty of space in between the carefully placed notes, creating an optimistic, living and breathing song.

3. June Damp. There is an older alternative version of this track on YouTube, a tour de force performance played on solo harp accompanied by real birdsong, which has a haunting beauty of its own.

This full band recording takes the structure and adds subtly crafted embellishment that gives the track a pulsing heartbeat to drive it along. It is another warm, summery song that seems to follow a natural cycle with repetition and shifting variation, expressed in the lyric ‘……heatwaves on heatwaves……long days on long days….’ expertly blended with the pastoral yearning of the melody.

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