Netherfield Lagoons by Brown Fang

DELIA002: Nottingham’s micro-record label, Delia Recordings, is thrilled to announce its second catalogue entry, a double-album from Nottingham instrumental duo Brown Fang.

Brown Fang is acclaimed musicians John Thompson (JIM, Bent, Attraktors, Scott 4, Crazy P, The Selecter, Nectarine No.9 and Idris Elba) and Henry Claude Scott (Never Ending Birthdays, Davoli, Jimi Mack) – bass and lead guitar respectively for Delia band Torn Sail.

Netherfield Lagoons brings together classic American minimalism, dub basslines, Tangerine Dream synths and wide-screen, slow-release guitars to create a sound-world you’ll be unwilling to leave. It comprehensively evolves the sound from the debut, ‘Sherwood Pines’, released in 2021 by NuNorthern Soul, and called “an album that you will keep going back to, not only in the ensuing months, but in the coming years, too” by Sun 13 Magazine.

Netherfield Lagoons is an intricate, gossamer- fragile, tender and often heart-rending journey through a forgotten, waterlogged corner of the Nottinghamshire landscape – a soundtrack to a fractured, imagined nature documentary where the organic, mechanical, electronic and digital are seamlessly blended. While there’s definite ambient tendencies, this is far from background music. A deep, melodic sensibility demands repeated listening, and slowly-revealed texture and detail rewards each revisit.

In the words of the band –
“These pristine recollections are a means to delve into the soul of space; to link earth, tuning peg, ears and fern. To give emotional latitude for musicians dipping their toes into cartography. To put our locale under the magnifying glass in the form of a vibrational tonic. Take a listen to the lakeside sunset or the moon on the lagoon and nod to their computer rhythms. For, if you let them, these familiar ghosts will walk you down private roads and ferry you across algae-filled waters”.

In a live setting, the surprise that two musicians can conjure and control such a multi-layered, performance gives way to a heavier, more insistent groove, with Thompson’s sub-octave bass clockwork-groove locked to the drum machine, and Scott’s Telecaster soaring and transforming above. Kosmische Musik maybe an overused term, but this is probably the closest you’ll get to the sound inside Conny’s Studio.

Brown Fang are influenced by Gary Numan, The Blue Nile, Durruti Column, Kraftwerk, Spiritualized, & Robert Fripp. Both Thompson & Scott are acclaimed musicians in their own right – Thompson has performed with Bent, Attraktors, Scott 4, Crazy P, The Selecter, Nectarine No.9 & Idris Elba amongst others, Scott as Fang Jr. & as electric guitarist with Jimi Mack, & Alice Robbins. Both with Torn Sail.