London duo Matt Chilton and Ed Lush formed Spork after realizing they were kindred spirits when it came to guitars, with Lush a drummer and Chilton a bass player in their everyday music mongering. Many Of Them Seriously is their debut album, where dense astral guitars create a bed for a basic sound, which then has synth, percussive blips, tasty drumming, electronic ephemera and an overdriven buzzing bass adding some finer detail. The songs occupy a middle ground between prog rock, (sans pomposity), and post-rock, (sans the quiet-Build Up-LOUD-quiet-Build Up-LOUD dynamic), extremes have been stripped away leaving subtlety and finesse, but also a touch of formlessness.‘Phantom Power' kicks off with a killer groovy bass, it's velvety texture is slowly surrounded by solar flare guitars and hard little processed percussion bits. Even as fierce feedback winds are tearing around, the song becomes more and more laid back the longer it progresses, defying any post-rock convention with regards to song structure, and also turning away from the indulgence of luxuriating in the atmosphere they create, as might happen to a more prog-leaning band. The lovely ‘Smoke & Mirrors' is defined by a tight propulsive drumbeat, tremolo guitars twinkling away, and reverby piano sprinkled into the air. Half way through the song the drums fade and turn into some brilliantly intricate cymbal work, an attention to detail that may have been surprising for the first three or so track, but which is now rapidly becoming a defining characteristic. The song doesn't then explode into a wailing cataclysm, and it is all the better for that, it continues to ride the returned drumbeat and the tense guitars for it's 4 minutes and 50 seconds. A pristine interlocking of instruments can be found in ‘Clowns', with barbed guitar washes crashing in like surf half way through the song's length, not unlike something Flying Saucer Attack might've come up with. ‘Old Man & The Sea' features a gorgeous drum sound, large cracks and thuds that spray up vapour into the air.All the tracks mentioned are the ones that deviate from the typical genre conventions that I think of Spork as being influenced by, and it is no surprise or coincidence that they are also some of the strongest tracks on Many Of Them Seriously. Even when they do lean into specific styles they accomplish themselves well, as on the crashing ‘Banshees V Bulldozers' or the jamming in ‘Circle The Wagons'. There is a soporific quality to the album, although the guitar sound is, as mentioned, velvety and interesting, it can also stretch a bit thin over the course of the 50 minute album. While the duo have decided against drawn-out song lengths, most tracks stay around the 3 to 4 minute mark, the album itself feels a bit too long, a bit too much time is required to drag out the subtlety that serves the album so well. But it is still a worthwhile listen, you just need to set aside some time, some attention, and get stuck in. 70%Links Spork [myspace] [record label]