At the end of each month of 2010, Wellington based band The Body Lyre released a downloadable single from their latest album Escape Songs onto their Band Camp Page. The Body Lyre has embraced all formats of music as outlets of the album’s official release on Saturday 30 April, providing additional CD and Vinyl versions. The physical release was well worth the wait for the packaging, the CD accompanied by a stunning book of art work embellishing the melancholic tones of each song.

Escape Songs is infused with brooding gritty blues. The song lyrics act as a means of releasing life’s trials and tribulations into a surging sea of churning guitar riffs and thundering drums offset by ethereal backing vocals. On opening title track ‘Escape Songs’ vocalist Rhydian Thomas confesses “Lately I’ve been throwing punches, just to watch my knuckles bleed” setting the sinister theme which steadily progresses throughout the album.

The heavy use of reverb brings an intensely eerie, quality to the vocals of Ana McGowan and Thomas on ‘Daughter’ and ‘O! Robinson’. Her sultry huskiness perfectly complementing his deep, somber, Nick Cave-esque drawl against the meandering melody of an acoustic guitar featured on ‘Geranium’.

Since the 2009 release of debut E.P December Marches, The Body Lyre has doubled in size to a six piece, enabling the band to add complex layers of sound to their minimalist bluesy folk approach. A perfect example of the band’s increased impact is instrumental track, ‘The Shelter’. Dense bass lines and thrashing guitar riffs snake their way across screeching feedback ebb and flow before being engulfed by a tide of violent snarling drums.

Spoken word track ‘The Colonel And His Birds’, is the stand out oddity and highlight of ‘Escape Songs’. The cacophony of chirping and squawking birds teleport the listener to the heart of dense native bush as the haunting squeals of harmonica and Thomas’s nonchalant whisper evoke unease.

Head over to The Body Lyre's bandcamp page for a listen and more info.