Introducing

Gloucestershire bands and musicians can find very odd inspirations behind their names. Irritant found theirs in the warning on a side of a deodorant can, Earnest Cox took inspiration from the name of a local funeral director and Project Twinkle found that the name that best evoked their style came from a song by an Echo and the Bunnymen side-project.

No name, however, can be quite so strange as this one: Lungbarrow.

Once upon a time, Will Moffat used the name Comrade for the moniker of his one man band of assorted bleeps, blips and sonic whooshes. However, on finding that many an American band had also gone by that appellation, he decided to change the name of his project to something…..slightly more original.

The Real (Sylvester) McCoy:

The inspiration behind this particular nom de plume comes from a novel based on Doctor Who. It’s a logical point of reference for an artist whose synthesised music shares certain stylistic similarities to a TV Sci-fi theme tune that we all know and love.

Lungbarrow’s EP, Staringrightthroughyou is a logical sequel to the artist formerly known as Comrade’s “Soon It Will Be Dark”. Sharing with its predecessor a dark, intense and brooding atmosphere, you may wish to hide behind to sofa while the music is playing.

As with the previous album, comparisons with Joy Division and The Stranglers may be drawn. Second track’s snarling “When the Light Goes Out” would not sound amiss perched near to the latter’s “Something Better Change”, while the darker feel of “Empty Rivers” recalls the gloomy sounds of early 1980s Indie.

Heaven Knows He’s Miserable Still:

The lyrics are full of regret for sins past, a longing for unlikely future salvation and an acceptance that life is probably not going to get much better. It’s a bleak, bleak world.

Lungbarrow starts as he means to go on with his opening salvo, a twisting of a well known Clash lyric: “Should I run away or stay and throw me life away?” (“Beacon”). The EP proceeds to rattle through an array of emotions: bitterness, frustration, loneliness and self loathing until, by the arrival of track three, “in my mind, there’s voices call out/shouting words - but hate without a doubt” (“Empty Rivers).

“Creeping Suspicion”, the fourth song to feature on Staringrightthroughyou is the strongest track of them all. It opens with a malevolent whisper, describing a unknown malevolent character: “If you could only see the wolf beneath the sheep/I think you then would find, he is anything but kind”.

With its rhythmic, electronic drumbeats underscoring Will Moffat’s interweaving vocal parts, it’s a chilling track that increases the tension and sheer creepiness the more you listen to it.

There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner:

From his impressive beginnings as Comrade, Will Moffat has crafted for himself a highly individual style, looking into some of the darker aspects of the human emotions. Through his intelligently crafted songs and imaginative use of a synthesiser, he explores themes that are more typically the preserve of angst ridden adolescents.

These songs, however, are not teenage rants. They are far darker than that. In Lungbarrow you will find a series of well written, well produced tracks that simultaneously attract and repel. Like a good horror film, you won’t bear to look - but you won’t be able to turn away either.

Don’t have nightmares.

For more information visit the Lungbarrow website by clicking on the link below: