Alternately atmopsheric, cinematic and overwhelming, “Crossing Enemy Lines” by THE FINCH CYCLE is a singular achievement of an Australian artist, who just released his fully formed debut emerging as one of the most interesting offerings in the post rock genre this year. The result is a multi-layered beauty of a record, blending many contrary moods and locking them into one hell of an experience. Today, we’re giving it another nod with a special track by track commentary, shared by the man behind THE FINCH CYCLE, Mr Bradley Murray.
The Finch Cycle is a music project for Bradley Murray (ex-owner of Wireless Records, who also plays in the band Sunny Disposition). The Finch Cycle is a blend of Brad’s experience in indie rock, and his love of post-rock. The result is a collection of instrumental tracks, which are formed from an indie-rock structure. The Finch Cycle is a project in which Brad performs, engineers and mixes all of the music. The debut EP ‘Crossing Enemy Lines’ was recorded in several houses in regional Victoria, Australia, between late June through to early August, 2020.
‘Crossing Enemy Lines’ is released digitally on October 26th, 2020 – available through Bandcamp, Key Control Recordings, and streaming services, globally.
Continued below…
Track by track commentary, by Bradley Murray
After I released my debut single back in May of this year, I was very keen to create and release more music. From late June through to early August, I tracked this EP, then I spent the best part of August through to early September mixing and editing it. By this stage I was pretty much at a critical point where I couldn’t work on it any more, and ended up getting a good friend of mine, Andrew McLaughlin (Champion Motorist) to master it for me. I enlisted the support of two close friends, Michael and Brendan, to play drums and trombone on this EP, and I did the rest. I made a lot of mistakes on this recording, which I hope to learn from for the next one!
SPACE CADET CRUMBLE:
This track is a dedication to my eldest son, who is obsessed with all things space, the universe and science. This track is probably the heaviest track on the EP, with a touch of post-metal added in. This may well be a direction I take in the future. I wanted it to build to an absolute wall of noise at the end, I hope it works out this way on streaming services, et al. My proudest element of this track is the bass tone, which really shines in the quieter first half of the track.
WHITE SWAN HILLS:
This was a song I had come up with for my other band, Sunny Disposition. But, I couldn’t find a melody that I liked, and ended up giving up. I revamped it for The Finch Cycle with the melody I had come up with, which seems to work a whole lot better as an instrumental track. However, it is definitely the trombone that makes this song.
TRACK ONE:
This is the first instrumental song I ever wrote. I demo’d it with a friend about six or seven years ago, and I was excited to re-record it and get it out there. I’d like to give a shout out to my good mate John Finch, who played bass on the first demo I made of this track. This is my favourite track that I have written for The Finch Cycle so far. I hope to continue creating tracks with varied time signatures in the future.
HOLDING OVER A TWANG:
This track is an ode to a band I used to manage and release on my first label, Wireless Records. The band was Slight of Build, and they played shoegaze rock – they were an amazing band, and I wanted to document my love of their music in my own track. I’ll have to make sure I tell them about this, so they can check it out!
WILLOW:
This track is dedicated to my daughter. This is the most ‘post-rock’ post rock song on the EP, in that it doesn’t follow a verse / chorus structure, like the other tracks do. I hope that true post rock fans will dig this one. My hope for this track was to start with a feather-light-touch, and end in a wall of noise.
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