Album Review: Liars, Titles With The Word Fountain

Titles With The Word Fountain is the sequel to Liars’ TFCF. Recorded at the same time as that album, it examines the breakdown and failure of a creative relationship. Since the departure of Aaron Hemphill in 2017, Angus Andrew – last standing original member – has effectively become Liars. Well, just him and his laptop.

While the prospect of 19 tracks of aural unease might seem daunting, the majority are either very short sketches, or can be taken as one extended track. The record takes on the aura of a creepy musique concrète suite, like the soundtrack to a weird Eastern-European, Kafkaesque stop-motion animation. You know, the sort where dolls’ heads crack open spilling maggots and strawberry jam onto clockwork mechanisms.

Throughout, there’s a dreamlike atmosphere, built around spooky, disquieting pulses, wonky rhythms and drunken bass-lines. Andrew describes it as “playful”, and perhaps it is – in the manner of a cat being playful with a mouse, as it swats and taunts the unfortunate rodent. You just know one of them isn’t having quite as much craic as the other.

Some light relief arrives at the eleventh hour in the form of a crumpled remix of ‘No Help Pamphlet’, which comes as close to a pop song as we’re going to get here. The record may be difficult listening in parts, but Liars aficionados will lap it up.
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