Truant

Truant - The Truant Accord
Memoirs of a Flatworm. CDR. 100 copies.


Contact:  http://radiofreemidwich.wordpress.com/




Rob Hayler’s reintroduction into polite society has been a major boost not just for Leeds but for a wider thinking world where folks of a droning melody bent meet electronic dabblers of a nodding persuasion. Not only have we seen the re-emergence of some of his long forgotten solo material via a couple of small run three inch CDR’s we now have a lost Truant album to ease us into autumn with. Hayler’s solo project Midwich was an electronic wand with which he conjured drones and infectious motifs of a repetitive nature but he didn’t stop there. Back at the beginning of 2001 he chowed down with Phil Todd and the enigmatic ‘Cloughy’ to create Truant. They released one album and then went back to whatever they were doing in the first place.  Fast forward ten years and the masters of a lost second album turn up at Todd HQ and whaddayaknow its been worth digging up. Why have we been sat on this all this time they all cry? Well, nobody really knows.

I suppose you could stretch your imagination somewhat and call Truant a supergroup. Clough played in the short lived long running Krautrock influenced Rancid Poultry, the Toddmeister was heavily involved in Ashtray Navigations and Rob Hayler was holding down his keys with Midwich. When they met they produced something melancholy, drifting and with their first album a raga composed by Klaus Schulz [maybe]. That first album was one thirty eight minute track but this lost second release contains five tracks covering the same time span. Its as equally soporific as the first but really bursts into life with the introduction of Todd’s bleeding guitar work, especially on the last and longest track Animal Kingdom. Clough’s lazy bass runs on New River Apple set up meandering paths down which Hayler’s electronics shimmer like tarmac heat-waves. Illusion of Choice is probably the edgiest track here with the electronics becoming slightly more urgent and groaning before it all packs in like the batteries have died. ‘Nosed’ is a fifty second opener of keyboard skree and dumped guitar solo thats there to lull you into a false sense of security but once that wandering bass couples up to Todd’s wasted guitar and Hayler’s glowing electronics Truant Accord becomes something rather special. Maybe they really were a supergroup after all?