Chapter One: A Long Way from Home

Album review

The short debut effort by the (unsurprisingly) U.K. duo, Chapter 1: A Long Way from Home finds the British Expeditionary Force to be the latest act to take advantage of the space carved out by acts like Hood, the Beta Band, and Kid A-era Radiohead, a pop/rock approach that relies on a quiet electronic experimentalism. This said, the core of the duo's process is that other recent development, the distant collaboration, with singer Aid Burrows and musician Justin Lockey swapping sound files while never meeting. If the calm, layered singing of Lockey provides an easy anchor, other elements are less immediate or straightforward -- the spacious piano parts, softly treated, on "Throwing Little Stones," the stately but queasy flow of the guitars on "Lashing Out," and the intricate interweaving of keyboards, vocals, and drums on "The Engine." There's even a burst of treated drum'n'bass rhythm on the title track, and if the end result sounds like it's meant to be the analog of "Idioteque" for this group, it's not surprising. The overall air of modern art-pop in a calm, abstract vein may in ways be a last holdout of post-punk's original promise.
© Ned Raggett /TiVo