Cincinnati’s The Drin return with their fourth full-length, Elude The Torch, and continue to hone their uniquely evocative dub fuelled post punk as they fiercely forge a myriad of influences from bluegrass to dark folk into a vibrantly cohesive soundscape.

I had the good fortune of catching The Drin when they played London back in April.  Now, as much as I’ve loved their three preceding LPs for their dense yet catchy complexity, for some reason I couldn’t quite frame what to expect in the live setting.  But as the hypnotically propulsive rhythm section and raucous saxophone kicked in, I knew it was going to be something pretty special – perhaps, more immediate, even more instinctual.  And the band’s craft in gradually ratcheting up the intensity through the set to a point verging on the euphoric was impressively relentless. Music to lose yourself in and, to be honest, we can all do with some of that at the moment.  Even the tambourines worked.  Yeah, it was that good.

And Elude The Torch perfectly captures the qualities that defined The Drin’s live incarnation. It is a vivid exploration of how to layer sound, rooted in intricate instrumentation and a lust to experiment, without ever bowing to the false lure of self-indulgence.  The bedrock is the driving rhythm section that both grounds the band’s more esoteric elements, while also ensuring a remorseless, mesmerising propulsion.  The languid, drawled, largely spoken word vocals act as a starkly contrasting yet equally consistent counterpoint as they conjure a cryptically allusive, poetically introspective narrative.

With these two elements locked in, the band’s instrumental palette is given full rein – the guitars swing from trippy wah-wah to hauntingly atmospheric bluegrass, while flares of raucous mouth organ, squalls of discordant saxophone, darkly resonant strings, and eerily skeletal piano all feed into a darkly foreboding, irresistibly immersive atmosphere.  And while the song writing is undeniably tight, the album brims with a writhing improvisational energy, as it segues seamlessly from spectral dissonance to passages that are almost transcendentally infectious.  So go on, elude the torch, embrace The Drin – it’s quite the journey.