The Ar-Kaics See The World On Fire
- Format
12 Inch
Black
£20.00
‘In the age of our self-made, Lying heads of fallen state, No one mentioning the change of season, Or the killing floor of latter days’ (Outsider)
As acoustic guitar swells beneath the skeletal, sombre riff that defines opener Chains, and the hoarsely melodic vocals kick-in, strident yet flecked with hints of fragility, you can’t help but be lured into its Southern Gothic tinged embrace. And what follows is an album that melds folk and 1970s’ rock influences to striking effect, as flourishes of brass, string, and mouth organ flare through the darkly melancholic guitars and propulsively limber rhythm section.
The overarching atmosphere is one of gloomy pragmatism that is forged of a certain world weariness, yet still resolute in its belief that all is not yet lost. This creates a dynamic that is imbued with a notable sense of drama as it seamlessly swings from the rollicking Stone Love to the melancholy drenched Land Of The Blind with its plaintive, haunting closing mantra of ‘Somebody help me please’. Similarly, the bleakly jaunty Dawning feeds into the powerfully surging Outsider, with the impetus never sagging for even a moment, before the ambitiously expansive Never Ending builds slowly but relentlessly, before unleashing its psychedelia fuelled, choral embellished, crescendo.
This is my first encounter with The Ar-Kaics, who intriguingly feature members of pageninetynine and City of Caterpillar, but it is actually their fourth full-length since the band took their recording bow in 2013. Diving into the Virginia band’s discography, their earlier records were rooted much more firmly in sixties-inspired garage punk, and whilst shadows of this heritage can still be traced, See The World On Fire feels very much like a band striding assuredly in tantalising new directions.