The Last Path - Blunt Synopsis The Last Path

Blunt Synopsis is the second album from Newcastle upon Tyne’s The Last Path (formerly known as Bad Amputee). The trio have spent more than a decade patiently developing their own language of song, using the interwoven vocals of traditional British folk as a starting point for excursions into minimalist rock music, hypnotic repetition and the blissful joy of an overdriven electric guitar.

The band's earlier incarnation released debut album Convenience Kills in 2020 in typically reserved style. It met with deserved critical acclaim, reviewers rightly noting folk and ‘slowcore’ influences but ultimately unable to pigeonhole this elusive, mysterious band alongside anything but themselves.

Blunt Synopsis continues and expands on their debut, the sound even sparser in arrangement but fuller and richer in tone thanks to the recording skills of Sam Grant (Pigsx7). Grant captures the band with the unobtrusive skill of a documentarian, placing the listener with the group as they play as though witnessing a private performance.

This illusion is supported by vocalists Phil Tyler and Claire Welford whose unadorned voices seem to pierce the barriers of a recorded document and speak directly and clearly to the listener, singing with a purity and honesty that feels out of time in the 21st century. The ensemble playing and choice of sounds recalls Low at their sparsest, Necrophones-era Lungfish or even Crazy Horse at their most zoned-in. Songs unwind and develop with a restraint that feels like sleight of hand, stretching time in the most magical way thanks in no small part to drummer Robin Fry and the trio’s telepathic knack for musical communication.

Blunt Synopsis will delight the patient and the inquisitive, feeling like a welcome refuge as much as an album: something with which to spend time, to engage with, to disappear into.