Almost exactly three years after their sophomore collaborative effort with Katie Kim which followed their 2008 album ‘Animal Dream’, House of Cosy Cushions return once again with this latest offering. Based around multi-instrumentalist and founder Richard Bolhuis, the Hiberno-Dutch collective in its present guise consists of a four-person nucleus featuring a revolving door of players. ‘Haunt Me Sweetly’ certainly is testament to the diversity of musicianship the band advocates – it’s a richly textured work in widescreen, certainly not lacking in ambition. Whether it attains the heights it strives for will remain up to the listener.
For the most part the tempo is relaxed and measured, compounded by a muted drum sound. In a sense it’s a muted album, like a hushed conversation that you lean closer to hear. The downbeat post rock of Tigress features some Dave Pajo style picking, with breathy horn interjecting. Paradoxically, for so dark and funereal a record, it’s quite ‘airy’ in texture, between wind instruments and vocals. This feature is again evident in title track and atmospheric standout Haunt Me Sweetly. Eerie, chanting vocals mingle with the bellows-like effect of the instruments as the drums come in with a slow march. The languid pace continues into In The Morning Sun where a constant organ drone in the background offsets the crystal guitar.
A more aggressive, conventional direction is taken with Outcast Cats, fuzz and noise crackling as the strings pulse away. The mid-album Wings, where the female backing vocals become prominent for first time is more of a straightforward tune than the previous cuts before things take a darker turn with Cut A Rug. No-nonsense, startling industrial drums pound a tom rhythm under slashed guitar before the scratchy violin and strings come in, another album peak.
It is the creation of certain intangible imagery that sets this album apart from the pack; Lake Dwelling is a brief interjection with the slightest hint of an eastern lilt – a sporadic recurring theme on the album – as a whistling wind effect whips up the desert dust. Instrumental Vlieland features a repetitive revving, or is it demonic breathing; the purring of a hellcat pacified only by this Lovecraftian lullaby. Green Eyes Blazing is another subtly sinister tune, difficult to discern just why, while follower Flood swells, crashes and recedes with ambient ease.
The wonder of ‘Haunt Me Sweetly’ is that it manages to conjure up stark surroundings with such lush instrumentation, a dream landscape just beyond reach – music through a veil almost. Most songs seem to be about creating an atmosphere, and they do so successfully. Even so, it can feel like an unfulfilled album where certain numbers seem unanchored – pieces of mood music waiting to be synched or linked to another piece of music or visual, companion pieces to a larger work. It is an immersive experience above all else though – whatever thoughts are on your mind, the dark imagining’s of this album cut through and take over, gradually interning them in soil-textured soundscapes.