I’ve read that the duo known as Pocahaunted have been described as the “Olsens of drone” which, unless it is a reference to the great Danish European Championship-winning side of the 1980s, is a reference that will have to remain lost on me.  Equally hard for me to understand is quite how prolific they are: I have no idea how many albums they have spat out this year since their epic collaboration with Not Not Fun labelmates Robedoor, but I’ve managed to grab hold of Island Diamonds and Mirror Mics – two slightly different variations on the band’s idiosyncratic theme.

On Island Diamonds they add a dub finish to their muddy mix of swirling drone and submerged wailing.  The end result sounds like Grouper performing Popol Vuh’s In Den Garten Pharaohs in a gale while Lee Perry tinkers about at the mixing desk.  They even call one of the tracks “Riddim Queen”; it features Bethany Sharayah’s spiralling vocal improvisation being nailed in rickety fashion to a spartan and slinky dub rhythm.  The same yet different, Mirror Mics is what they call their “tribal soul” record.  On the first side “One Another”, this means a relentless percussion groove, and loads of chanting,  building gradually across fifteen minutes, with increasing amounts of guitar and reverb.  The flip side “Sister Calypso” coos softly before exploding with distortion and free-blowing sax.  As most things should.

In the time it has taken me to write this, they’ve probably knocked out another, their dubstep/pirate metal/gala bingo/ shoeface record or whatever, and it will have the same druggy, fuggy, blissed out, tossed out beauty that these two have.  But at least they’re still playing the ball forward, never square or backwards.  Famously unlike Denmark’s Jesper Olsen.  I still don’t see the connection.  Maybe it’s a hair thing?

Island Diamonds was out on Arbor but is being reissued on Not Not Fun, while Mirror Mics is available on Weird Forest. I think.