Outbursts

'It's been more than a decade since London's Turin Brakes - aka founders Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian - helped redefine 21st century British acoustic music with their Mercury Prize-nominated debut album The Optimist LP. Eager to eschew any formal or restrictive categorization, Knights and Paridjanian have made a career out of doing the unexpected, whether turning their creative spark toward a darker, more electric bent or adding some unique rhythmic, soulful aspects to their craft. New album Outbursts - their first studio project since the 2007 Ethan Johns-produced Dark On Fire and first for the Cooking Vinyl label - marks a sharply focused return to the shapeshifting neo-folk form that we've come to expect - and appreciate - from the Brakes. "We thought 'Let's go back and do this whole thing like we used to'," Paridjanian says. "Do it as a duo. That's where the magic is." And, true to their word, the self-produced Outbursts recaptures much of what made Turin Brakes an influential and dynamic force to begin with. Raw and immediate, with both hauntingly personal touches and intense, driving thrust, songs such as lead single "Apocolips" seem to be lit from within by an urgency to create something new and special, a quality that's rare from a veteran band. "We loved the idea that these songs were outbursts that were going to happen whether we liked it or not," Knights' reflects. "It's an album that has been made with no outside briefing or preconceived plans. It is absolutely true to ourselves."' - Direct Current