Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is a period of time in Britain that is perhaps less understood than any other over the last couple of millennia but it doesn’t make it any less fascinating, if anything it makes it more compelling to take it and understand. For KynchinLay, Dark Age can also represent a sense of yearning, a sense of freedom waiting to be discovered and one in which Time must be taken over to appreciate fully.

Following on from Drink Me, the new E.P. by KynchinLay is a foray into another wood, a journey through a different forest in which the musical appetite is sated by other means. Whilst not as immense as Drink Me, for what second album or E.P. draws breathe in the same realm as its predecessor. It nonetheless has greatness at its heart, a fighting spirit which is hard to deny and for KynchinLay, which is the whole reason for the successful approach to delivering quality music and Dark Age reflects that completely.

The five tracks on offer range from the desire that sits at the heart of I Be Hopin’ to the tangible thought of Back To What She Knows and Shudder. They merge like two sets of small businesses fighting against the overwhelming odds imposed upon them by the hierarchy and ignorance of a giant, apart they might sound indifferent, lacking something concrete but together they are more than a whole, they stand for something articulate, resounding and utterly substantial. KynchinLay have produced something that many struggle with, a great second release which fires the imagination as much as the previous musical publication.

What cannot be denied is that KynchinLay should now go forward again and go the extra mile, the full length album is surely waiting in the wings to take flight and it would be a huge bonus to hear this superb spirit captured and framed in a longer release.

Dark Age it may be, but this second E.P. delivers much abiding light, an untapped treasure in which to find yourself immersed in.  

Ian D. Hall