Bleep

Shield Patterns, the Manchester duo of Claire Brentnall and Richard Knox, present their promising debut full-length. It’s Knox who’s responsible for the hazy instrumental heard on Contour Lines, pillow-like productions that cradle and support Brentnall’s affecting vocals. He crafts a bouncy, percussive backdrop on single ‘Dust Hung Heavy’, and infuses ‘Shade’ and ‘Charon’ with scorched earth guitar and evil-sounding drones. On the latter, vocalist Brentall takes on a bit of Beth Gibbons’ detached, alienated beauty, and on the more fanciful ‘Ghost Words’ and ‘Dead Air’ she channels prime-era Kate Bush.