Music Arcades: Appendix Out: The Night is Advancing

This is the kind of album where I wish I had a lyric sheet. Something to give me a way in, to help me parse the songs. I was re-reading this (excellent) interview with Alasdair Roberts a few days ago, which covers his career from Appendix Out up to No Earthly Man in 2005. Of this album, the feature writer says,

The Night is Advancing is seriously expansive, the group at their most collaborative, bringing in Sean O’Hagan to co-produce and push the songs into other zones: at times free jazz, the water music of Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and the dark corners of Bill Fay.

Other zones, yes. Just look at the track titles and you get a sense of their otherworldliness.

This is the last album Appendix Out made, and the first I got, shortly after I fell in love with their Warm and Yeasty Corner EP. I guess it wasn't what I was expecting, or hoping for — after this, it was a few years before I got more Appendix Out. The Night is Advancing is nowhere near as freaky as their other EP, and I have the feeling I may ultimately come to love it. But it's going to take more time and effort.