“In the Dark on 99 is in many ways the realist representation of winter, the real-life counterpart to the romantic crunch of snow and hot cocoa. That said, it deals with this in a much more interesting way than merely saying ‘actually, winter is cold and dark and the snow turns to muddy slush…’ The album probes what winter means, what it does to us, how it becomes less a season than some existential force.”

The Black Pits, Cuming’s latest EP, looks to build on the album and explore themes of travel and isolation in a land where the elements hold a significant curiosity. Again, his lyrics are cryptic and poetic and delivered in that Bill Callahan sort of style which made In The Dark… so evocative, drawing the listener through the tracks like the faceless narrator of a dream. Opener ‘Keep Trying’ is the perfect example, the strange vocals backed by an incisive and vaguely menacing instrumentation reminiscent of Old Earth:

The wind will turn/ Against your back/ Your back will talk/ To/ the window’s crack/ As time cloves two/ On a strong boat on the moor/ You’ve heard this before/ It’s sparser than ever/ So keep on trying/ Keep trying

Each track enlists a different producer, with fellow musicians like Garrett Johnson, Layne L’Heureux and Tyler Butler taking over the duties, so it is Cuming’s distinctive vocals which provide the cohesion across the six songs. ‘Long Life’ slows slightly, the track brooding and rhetorical (“What do you know?/ Are you strong?/ Do you travel?/ Does the wind even make you cold?”), while ‘Lost in Time’ relaxes further, the vocals becoming smooth and fluid, like some quasi-doo-wop act in a smoke-filled club too late at night. The lyrics become odder on the restrained ‘Quiet Dream’, fragmented but compelling, grasping at a logic just out of sight.

“I’ve heard a hundred sorry midnight’s score/ That electric hum, the loner’s lullaby/ To kiss another gunshy infant morn/ To drink another bloodshot evening dry”

In comparison, ‘Stay Inside’ is heavy, a track smothered by mean reverb that is ominous both in terms of sound and lyrics. “When you wake up in the morning,” Cuming sings, “don’t open up your eyes. As you’re walking out the door, stay inside”. However, the title track closes the release on a more upbeat note, with the hostile drone replaced by brighter, shimmering guitars.

Heaven/ I would remember/ A fleeting sheet in time/ A symbol of a sign/ At home/ And darkness breeds alone/ It trembles with desire/ But in the blackest pit, there was a shovel for me/ Hold tight

The Black Pits EP is out now on Bart Records, and you can buy it from the Jom Comyn Bandcamp page.

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