Single Review: Inheritance

Inheritance is the second single from Orangefarm’s forthcoming album of the same name, where frontman Nigel Mitchell was convinced by old friend and producer Rob Mayes to get back in the studio and undertake everything a little more seriously. Mitchell has been recording under this name for more than twenty years, and here we have him accompanying himself on a descending guitar pattern, with former bassist Celia McAlpine joining on parts of the song , also providing some harmonies to turn it into more of a duet. For the most part it is just them and some reverb, with just a few rising keyboards at one point, and the result is quite hypnotic. The beauty is in its simplicity and repetition, so it becomes quite hypnotic, and one is unaware of time passing by.

Although they would be regarded by many as curious bedfellows, I found myself thinking of both Radiohead and The Smiths when playing this, although the female harmonies move it far more into dream pop. The arrangement is very clever in that the lack of percussion really moves the ear into the guitar and vocals, while the bass (when it is there) is nuanced and in the background, but highly effective as well. This is a very polished, somewhat languid, release which takes a while to get into the brain but certainly stays there.