From hibernation into a scary world.
A search on AUK having revealed nothing, Modern Nature may be a new name for readers. They certainly are to this reviewer who has been entranced by this record of hypnotic creativity. There is not much americana but it is music that makes any kind of labelling a futile exercise. Jack Cooper is the main creative force of songwriting, vocals and guitar who, with drummer Jim Wallis and bassist Jeff Tobias, form Modern Nature’s core. For this record they are joined by another guitarist Tara Cunningham whose glistening guitar cascades bring out the influences from Television and Brian Eno.
Modern Nature have made a record more focussed and structured than their previous improvisation. This is a band at work, not only musically but in having something to say. Again, previously there was something rather bucolic about their music. Cooper admits to having lived quite an insular life in the country but with ‘The Heat Warps’ he feels a reawakening. Collectivism and relationships with nature are under threat as he struggles to find his way in a crueller world. But without abandoning optimism altogether he wants to stand up for what he believes in. These songs, each with a single-word title, make those beliefs clear.
Opener ‘Pharaoh’ seeks to define that personal philosophy. How to live life? At least do it in a way that does no harm to others appears to be Cooper’s message. DJ Andrew Weatherall, who played Modern Nature on his show before he died in 2020, once said, “Fail we may, sail we must”. To Cooper that sums up ‘Pharoah’, its vocals may be deceptively quiet but the urgent beat indicates there is not a lot of time left.
‘Radio’ takes aim at the damage Modern Nature sees wrought by capitalism, what happened in Los Angeles earlier this year fuels the flames of the line, “there’s a fire all around”. Again, the peaceful singing belies such vehement opinion.
Constantly Cooper seeks to make sense of an increasingly fractious world. ‘Alpenglow’ is a folk tinged muse where he is ‘finally making some sense of it all” but only to “break out in fear”. ‘Zoology’ takes the pace even more slowly, almost as if Cooper has given up and gone back to his country fastness. Inspired by the 2024 solar eclipse while in America ‘Totality’ closes the album with a huge sweep of music and a fair drop of optimism too. The flowing guitars suggest the vastness of the skies Cooper gazed at from the side of a highway crossing the New Mexico desert.
If it is possible to get a bit lost in ‘The Heat Warps’ wherever you emerge, the sound is spellbinding and a timely reminder that whatever your views, music matters.
