The Lost Brothers - The Passing Of The Night (Readymade)

Offering a voyage into the nighttime with the arresting ‘Not Now Warden’, Messrs Oisin Leach and Mark McCauseland roll out a trundling rhythmic turn that mirrors the sadness of a prisoner who’s lover is no longer waiting for him. The vocalist pairing echoes a Lennon and McCartney harmony, with a softly thrumming acoustic backdrop equalizing the lower and higher pitch. Matching the pace with ‘Blue Moon In September’, and leaving a lover under such light, bound for death, the sentiments heave an ethereal glow under the rule of a slowly waltzing accordion, threaded with ghostly Theremin trails, crooning “with six devils at my back, my coffin will be black. Six angels they will pray, to take my soul away… as I sail away tonight, I’ll be gone before the night, and these words Ill leave with you, what more could I do?" Leach and McCauseland’s penchant for crooning lends a silky quality to tales of broken hearts and darkened skies.

Not a concept album as such, though one which is wholly concerned with the love and loss of the heart, the duo are content to celebrate what is and what can never be with a smile and a heavy heart. It is a testament to their tale telling that each moment is a concertina of complexity, bound up in small windows which expand the more you listen. Gluts of slow reflection give way to slicks of revelry in ‘Bird In A Cage’. Enlisting a New Orleans brand of piano bar jazz, replete with banjo strings and double base notes, they enlist the help of the lord to keep them on the good path. Whilst jaunty to the core, darkness shrouds the sordid deeds they need delivering from. ‘Now That The Night Has Come’ coats black thought in similarly upbeat riffs and twinkling fillers whilst musing on the hard loneliness of night, echoing atop the high sung vocals, “Hey nighttime lady putting on your dress, for whom are you waiting, who will be next? Wipe all those tears now there’s work to be done, now that the nighttime has come”.

‘Tumbling Line’ takes a different stance, as choral whistling and roughly played keys portray an early morning drunken fumbling, hailing the near start of a new day with bleary eyes, lyrics “soothe me baby, give it to me, one last time. Your bottles almost empty but I still got mine” giving the effect of the last night well spent with a lover. Riffing on the inevitability of an ending, the final bars are short and sweet, a closing thrum on the drums creating the sense that the player has fallen down drunk as his instrument.
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It is no small wonder that this album is called The Passing of the Night as the late hours give you a chance to reflect, to pull back and lose yourself in the darkness as the tales wash over you. The moments framed in each track offer liveliness, pensive exploration, foreboding, fleshed out in the beautiful harmonies created by Leach and McCauseland. ‘Until the Morning’ closes the story with a depth in sound which echoes down through the paths in your mind. More minimal than anything found on this record, its closing gambit creates a space which is yours to fill, “until the morning, I wont be found” filling your head with a night that is yours to do with what you will. No, getting lost isn’t always negative, and The Lost Brothers are Shamen of the darkness that you can lose yourself in.