Big Red go with their gut on Big Sur

The shimmering coastline stretches both outward and upward, as the rocks the waves crash against hold the roots of the redwood trees, some of the tallest and most ancient in the world. Mimicking the rough splendour of its namesake, this debut album by Big Red – a solo vehicle turned trio from Joe Scarisbrick of UK band The Orchestra (For Now) – builds from quiet hums to a torrential storm, flitting between melancholy and heartbreak along the way. As a songwriter, Scarisbrick already proved nimble on the Orchestra EPs Plan 75 and Plan 76, where the seven-piece band oscillated between tenderness, detachment, and anxiety, weaving references, taglines, slogans, and poetic imagery into an apocalyptic collage. With string players Lingling Bao-Smith and Erin Snape, the band were able to build heart-dropping, otherworldly songs like “Wake Robin” and “Hat Trick”. What Big Sur sets out to answer is what happens to that grandeur when seven are pared down to three. The backdrop may be dramatic but Big Red thrive on few ideas. Taking on a simpler rock style than the chamber-prog of The Orchestra (For Now), each player's instrument is given a bold character that gives guts to feelings that are o...