It is interesting that the tag line of their label, Fluttery Records, declares itself to be the “home of modern classical, ambient and post-rock” as this is pretty much the perfect starting point for the album. A three-way Venn diagram if you like, with the music drifting in and out of the various common grounds as the mood takes them.
They build their sound on a wonderfully fluid post-rock template, one that eschews the 4/4 signature and rigid verse-chorus ethic of traditional rock and instead wanders its own musical journey, often lingering long in one lush musical landscape before flitting through more minimal territory, languishing in gentle, bucolic beauty and then climbing acoustic peaks.
It isn’t hard to see this approach as a modern day progressive classical music, the instruments may have been updated from the traditional format but the symphonic nature of the music is obvious to all. And like a symphony it tells its story through sound rather than lyric, it maybe be a less obvious, less direct method, but it is no less heart tugging, emotive and effective.
It is music of the heart and soul, requiring total immersion. Whilst most music contains its own user manual amongst its beats and notes, one that tells the listener exactly how to interpret the message, This Makes Us Human is more about osmosis, a vibe to be soaked up and ingested. And without the directness and constraint of words, the message found in the music is…well, whatever you think it is.
