For many years, going all the way back to the days when he could be broadly if inaccurately categorized under the “witch house” umbrella, the Liverpool musician Matthew Barnes has been making dank and evocative music under his Forest Swords alias. Last year, Barnes came back with Bolted, his first proper Forest Swords album in six years. Today, he’s dropped two more tracks that he recorded during the Bolted sessions.
Forest Swords recorded the tracks “Torch” and “Pearl Of Hail” in the same Liverpool warehouse where he made Bolted, and both short instrumentals definitely sound like the kind of music that you’d make in a Liverpool warehouse. “Torch” is built on eerie minor-key synth-riffs and drip-drop sounds, while “Pearl Of Hail” is warm enough to be almost pretty.
On Bandcamp, Matthew Barnes says, “I’m trying to not have much music hanging around on hard drives gathering dust anymore, life’s too short. This pair are a bit lighter and more spring-like than most of Bolted, but still share the same DNA.” Listen below.
“Torch” b/w “Pearl Of Hail” is out now on Ninja Tune, and I really had to train my brain to not write the phrase “Ninja Swords” instead.
