Windsor for the Derby: You Can't Hide Your Love Forever Vol. 8
Geographic North

Having issued music since 1995 and witnessed no small number of personnel changes during its tenure, Windsor for the Derby contributes the eighth installment to Geographic North's You Can't Hide Your Love Forever series, with the release available in a transparent pumpkin orange seven-inch vinyl format (300 copies). To say the release is short but sweet is an understatement, given the disc's total running time of nine minutes; even so, the two tracks offer some enticing impression of the outfit's sound, despite the recording's modest length.

Like some lonely transmission from a distant galaxy, the A-side's “Speaker Special” opens with insistent, low-end pulsations soon joined by a quietly menacing organ pattern that only barely expands, Windsor for the Derby seemingly preferring to asphyxiate the material than open it up—more an exercise in noose-tightening than liberation. The dynamic counterpart to “Speaker Special,” “Heard Worse” floods the aural space with blinding illumination from the outset, the listener dizzied by a phantasmagoria of oscillating vapour trails and siren flares. One might thus think of the recording as a tripped-out teaser for a more comprehensive Windsor for the Derby outing.

January 2013