The opening few minutes give a fair snapshot of the album as a whole: emotive, crooning vocals float over a background of slurring, wheezing electronics; before, around the two minute mark, the vocals themselves are slowed and slurred, heralding the entrance of a pretty drums/guitar structure, fleshed out with vocals and layers of electronics. So, the main ingredients are played out here: the vocals, the backbone instrumentation, the processing and the “colouring” electronics. Given these four elements, if I had to quickly, crudely summarise “maelstrom”, it would involve the words “Radiohead, messy, ‘lo-fi psychedelia made hi-fi’”. The vocals are unfortunately of the timely, prevailing “indie croon” variety; but with a definite leaning towards the work of Thom Yorke, complete with frail falsetto. At points - the beginning of “on and on”, for example; or the “chorus” of “chasing hills” - the trio achieve a sound thats practically a pastiche to Radiohead: though only their more introspective, “tired” songs. The instrumental work behind the vocals, is where “messy” comes in: the “backbone instrumentation” is often clouded and smothered by the “colouring electronics” and the amount of processing. Most of the songs have several layers of things going on - but they often remain indistinct and vague, like some kind of foam injected into the songs: the electronic “colouring” fills up space but often adds little. This is what I meant by “lo-fi psychedelia made hi-fi” - the playing and aesthetic is reminiscent of a lo-fi, “kitchen-sink” approach to psychedelic processing, but its recorded and realised with more high fidelity means. This makes for an unsatisfactory marriage to my ears: a cluttered, psychedelic stew; which might be more palatable in a rougher form. Even when the space clears for a bit, and the sound becomes more sparse, there’s often some processing going on; not in a radical post-punk way, or with a warped Residents-esque sensibility, just colouring and shading. It often feels distracting and unnecessary. At the other end of the scale, there are long instrumental sections where the band stretch out; these occur with varying success, suffering the same issues with processing and clutter.

I suspect the above may be a little harsh. As I’ve grown older, my tastes have noticeably changed somewhat; whereas my younger self would probably have loved “maelstrom”, to me it sounds caught between two stools - possibly even three or four! For my mind, the “experimental” cluttering elements get in the way of the songs, the processing adds another distracting layer and the production another confusion. Its not necessarily as if one element is the issue, here; they just seem to conspire together. As I said, my tastes have altered and I do prefer a more distilled pop “hit” - or an old-fashioned slab of instrumental clutter - whereas “maelstrom” is more reminiscent of “difficult” pop albums I used to enjoy. So, not my thing, but perhaps yours…