Matthew Barnes had a pretty good 2010. Not only did the UK producer known as Forest Swords release the Dagger Paths EP (twice), he was able to spend a whole year watching adventurous music fans slowly come around to his vision. What initially sounded like the dubby musings of a post-rock acolyte eventually revealed themselves to be much more: treatises on voice and memory, half-remembered R&B, and haunting guitars. The reissued Dagger Paths included six early Forest Swords tracks, which the Fjree Feather EP repackages (yes, again), with proceeds now going to Red Cross tsunami relief.
This pre-Dagger Paths work shows that while Barnes' vision was already mostly developed, his toolbox was noticeably lighter. The six tracks here rely almost uniformly on slow, powerful drumming and a thick guitar assault that has way more in common with, say, early Flying Saucer Attack or Codeine than, well, Timbaland or Four Tet, whom Dagger Paths at its best could evoke. Barnes works in layers, his tones distorted but his pace measured. Fjree Feather sounds sinister as a result, churning over into psychedelic sludge and back again.
Even in these early recordings, Barnes' style is distinct: "Bones" is, structurally, a metal song, with its bass lapping up against its plodding drums. But everything is thin-- that bass has no depth, those drums no oomph-- as if it's being played underwater. Dagger Paths was notable for its use of sampled, garbled voices. Fjree Feather features just the barest hints of that. "Trust Your Blood", the most forward-thinking track here, trades quasi-tribal chants with peals of electric guitar, its rhythms resisting the urge to putter to a stop.
Fjree Feather finds a nice middle ground; it's sometimes a well-executed leftfield guitar album and other times a primer for the ghostly lean-tos on Dagger Paths. But Barnes is most exciting for where he might be going, not necessarily where he's been. With Forest Swords' back catalog presumably now exhausted, we can return to awaiting his next move.
