Springtime is a supergroup trio composed of Gareth Liddiard, Jim White, and Chris Abrahams. After releasing their self-titled debut the year prior, the group released their EP, “Night Raver,” in 2022, with the project currently remaining their latest release.
On “Night Raver,” Springtime presents three songs: “The Names Of The Plague”—a new composition from the band, “The Radicalisation Of D”—a rerecording of one of Liddiard’s solo works, and “Penumbra”—a rerecording of a song from Liddiard’s old band, The Drones.
“The Names Of The Plague” is a 15-minute long piece that has frantic moments of panicked energy, paired with contrasting, slow-burning and uneasy transitional periods. While the piece is well done and for sure has some exciting and interesting moments, it does tend to drag on and likely could have been trimmed somewhat.
The following 18-minute “The Radicalisation Of D” picks things up, though it is objectively downtrodden and moody. The already phenomenally-written song is improved upon with piano and drums, whereas the original only had acoustic guitar. The events leading up to the climax are also made more destitute of energy, now even better contrasting the horrifying and jarring climax of the song.
The EP ends with “Penumbra,” being wildly different than its original version. The composition is much more filled out, almost twice as long as the original, and introduces frantic and experimental instrumental breaks.
“Night Raver” is certainly good, but its unfortunate that its only new composition is arguably its weakest, as well as it starting the project. But it is no doubt worth a listen, especially for fans of the members’ previous works.
Rating: 7.5/10