Over a couple of solo albums Jamie Hutchings has been ploughing fertile ground with more introspective and quieter material than that of Bluebottle Kiss, his band from 1993-2007. Now he’s convened a new band featuring ex-BBK drummer Jared Harrison and headed back into dense, noisy, exploratory and discordant rock music. River Mirrors takes many twists and turns such as the meditative Necks-ish mood on Termites (a re-imagined version of a BBK song), the swaggering vigor of Swing A Kitten, the krautrock repetition and eventual release that is Monsoon and the Sonic Youth does Motown shuffling groove of Gallows Queue. This is yet another restlessly creative and highly impressive release from Hutchings.

Chris Familton

this review was first published in The Music