Modernity is an absurd thing. Whilst, within this post-covid landscape, human beings work isolated in their homes, all they really want is connection and to feel OK in ways that former generations were able to take for granted. On their second album ‘Domestic Majestic’, Silent Forum drill down deeper into this sentiment, taking in self-help, yoga poses, shoddy hotels in Folkestone and cataloguing tax receipts with loved ones.
There’s a grand lineage of bands finding the magic in the everyday and it appears to be a rather British thing, reaching back to ‘The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society’, Blur’s trilogy of ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’, ‘Parklife’ and ‘The Great Escape’, even now groups like Sports Team document humdrum small-town goings-on. Silent Forum fuse that approach on to Foals and Everything Everything type post-punk art-rock.
With wry, observational humour, the record’s third single, ‘Here’s the Email’, analyses the WFH life, forced cyber connections in silo, and ‘Treat Yourself’ notes, to uplifting, distortion drenched guitar “I have the luxury to feel sorry for myself/Why don’t you treat yourself to a little self-help/You matter so much, you don’t matter, you matter”, both fetishising and appreciating the rich wellbeing industry.
Most recent single ‘Yes Man’ is math-rock interjected with solid guitar solos, singer Richard Birt-Wiggins bemoans his character’s agreeability, then comes up with the common-sense but inspired adage: “You will spend your life unintentionally annoying people, so be tolerant/ You’re bound to spend your life unintentionally offending people, so calm down”.
The closest ‘Domestic Majestic’ comes to actually sounding like Blur is on the insincere text message lead ‘U OK’, which takes the britpop lads’ eponymous titled album’s buzzsaw guitar sound and smudges it into ‘Oily Water’ to fantastic effect. The album’s tender moments are some of it’s finest, ‘Petrol Station Flowers’ spaced out, haunted rhythms and simple domestic bliss, and ‘Little Bird’ blossoms introspection through a glittering melody.
‘Domestic Majestic’ does what it says on the tin, paints the domestic as majestic, finds the macro in the micro and supplies some mega textured pop-post-punk tunes.
‘Domestic Majestic’ was released on 23rd February through Libertino Records and you can buy it over on Silent Forum’s bandcamp, as well as stream it wherever you get your tunes.
We’ve put the video of ‘Yes Man’ down below for you to have a watch, if you wanna. You probably should, it’s ace:
Edge of Arcady 