‘Doggerland’ is, or rather used to be, the strip of land that once connected what are now the British Isles to the European mainland. We are talking of a very distant past here, since ‘Doggerland’ sank into the sea, once and for all, at the end of the Ice Ages, leaving behind only geological memory and incidentally becoming one of the closest things we have to a real-life Atlantis. It is an interesting concept, which can potentially summon all sorts of powerful images, and so it is rather unsurprising that Bishopskin, a band that has found a trademark in exploring the spiritual and powerful undertones of the remote history of Britain, would latch onto it as a source of inspiration. 

‘Doggerland’ is indeed the title of their latest single, which follows on the same line of thought of its direct predecessor ‘Old Sock’ - more complex musical lines, changes in structure which introduce an element of movement aptly much like the flowing of water, a greater confidence in both vocal and composition, and almost an urge to find more space, within a single track, to explore both sound and concept. 

This, however, compared to all its predecessors, is a much more ambitious piece, which breaks many of the unspoken rules of alternative rock music and does so boldly, because it has a story to tell. The strong sense of storytelling, even above musical endeavour, is what lingers in the mind after the track is over: partly thanks to its powerful arrangement, which is broad and stratified in places, stripped-back and whimsical in others, and partly thanks to vocalist Tiger Nicholson’s emotional delivery, ‘Doggerland’ feels like an epic told through music, as much as if not even more than a folk-rock track. 

Compositionally, the song may well be the band’s most impressive feat to date, and it is a pleasure to see artists who are open to pushing themselves further with every new release, building upon their sound rather than resting in the comfortable space of what works for them. Pairing a punk spirit with instruments which are not often found in alternative rock spaces has always been one of Bishopskin’s strength, and here it comes to fruition with special effectiveness, with an instrumental bridge resting strongly on clarinet which feels like it could be part of a classical music symphony but it somehow not at all at odds with the folk-epic scaffolding provided by the rest of the track, and a main, recurring line shouldered primarily by the violin that leaves the listener almost with a compulsion to dance. There has been a steady growth, too, in the handling of vocals, and the resulting confidence shines through in the opening bars of the song, where the interplay between the singing of Nicholson and bandmate Tati Gutteridge is especially atmospheric and fluid.

The almost synaesthetic feeling of water being portrayed through music is one of the most striking features of the track. Listen closely and you will notice it everywhere: in the little ripples of trickling guitar that feel like a stream of drops incessantly falling off a log, in the back-and-forth of the violin line that is like the incessant moving of a wave, in the mounting tide of sound in the final portion of the track. The result is music that, very fittingly for its subject matter, feels liquid, poured more than played. It is, by all its trappings, a folk song - more of a folk song, perhaps, than anything else the band has put forth thus far - but it is also, in a way, an attempt at painting through music.

This is a band that has left us accustomed to expecting unique and left-field efforts, marked by the courage of doing things that shouldn’t work on paper, with the confidence of expecting them to work regardless. With ‘Doggerland’, they have pulled this trick yet again, in what feels like the most mature form of their sound thus far. 

Chiara Strazzulla

@cstrazzull

Image: ‘Doggerland’ Official Single Cover

 

 

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