Sidings by Craven Faults

From the clack of the tracks to the brooding and soaring loops, this album is a masterpiece.

First side, a deep, instantaneous love for the work. What is most striking is that this was a punt in the dark purchase. I’d never heard of Craven Faults or listened to a single track prior to the double album/postcard/photo booklet landing. I saw the imagery, I read the descriptor for the colour of the vinyl, I knew where this was going.

Back in 2013 I enrolled on a fine art course. As part of my final installation project I undertook some reading into Derrida’s concept of hauntology, his book Spectres of Marx, and the work of Mark Fisher. While I may have had little prior knowledge of Craven Faults I instantly formed a connection between the hauntological aspects of my art and what was contained on these two slabs of vinyl.

The analog synths power us through a landscape hewn with signs of industry and abandonment. I’ve since sat and enjoyed all of Craven Faults’ oeuvre, but this will remain my favourite work for some time to come. At times there’s a pressing, claustrophobic bass, at times there’s release … air … space. One minute, the sense of boogies on iron track, the next there’s a still, rain, rust.

In a tweet I said that this wasn’t an album, this is a piece of art. I said this wasn’t music, this is a call – a love letter – to a Yorkshire landscape held dear. I still think this is true, but more. As a package of pieces, the double cover, the artwork, the two sleeves hiding four sides of Wulfenite Orange. The gestalt is far, far more than the sum of its parts.

From accidentally catching news from the mad world, the album transported me. I felt elevated into the world surrounding the sidings. I felt release and freedom from dark to light. I felt joy in the catharsis of the repetitions.

I want more. I’ve just purchased Standers.

Craven Faults on Bandcamp - https://cravenfaults.bandcamp.com

Buy me a coffee - https://ko-fi.com/xraydex