I'm in danger of reprising a point I made a little earlier when writing about a band from High Wycombe, but it IS a valid point that much of the best music we hear usually emanates from terminally unfashionable places where a freer atmosphere allows the participants to create away from the hothouse situation of the major conurbation.
Hailing from entirely unfashionable Consett in County Durham, THE CLIFFHANGER are the embodiment of this line of thinking. A superb unit, independent of spirit, and with an obvious adoration of great, off-centre guitar music, they are post-rockers landing squarely on the pop side of the fence with the same kind of knack as Leeds' W&H favourites Juxtaposition for writing skilful songs that meander their way into your heart.
So it's a pleasure to get in at the ground floor here. "Hit The Horizontal" is The Cliffhanger's first release. Self-recorded and released it may be, but it's superbly realised stuff. The title track leads off, and it's a lovely, Autumnal thing indeed, full of warm, chiming guitars, rolling and patient drumming and flecks of what could well be a cor anglais. Singer Ben Trenerry doesn't push too hard, allowing his tremlous voice to blend with the evocative scenery. Damn fine start, folks.
Second track "Love Is A Computer That Works" is a rival for Funeral For A Friend's "She Drove Me To Daytime Television" in the title of the year stakes and ebbs and flows nicely, but it's the closing track - the ambitiously-named "The Sublime" that receives this writer's blue riband. Actually deserving of its' title, it builds tantalisingly from its' whispered opening and gentle, Talk Talk-style pulsing through some deliciously uplifting melancholy and settles into a proudly languid groove before abruptly stopping dead, save for some distant cymbal work. Within seconds, the whole band smash in for the song's final say, and Ben signing off with the great line; "Let's have some faith in love" before a final push shunts it into greatness via a big, Slint-style attack and it ultimately slips away into gentle flows of feedback and the low thrum of the Peter Hook-style bassline. Sublime really isn't an overstatement.
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"Hit The Horizontal" is a considerable achievement for a first EP. As their name suggests, The Cliffhanger are all about drama, passion and self-belief and have the good sense not to want to give all the mystery away too soon. They are quite possibly the best band to come from the north-east since Penetration and I, for one, hope we'll be hearing much more from them.
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