Alison Angus
Alison Angus
“The idea of people taking what they want from what we have as a band, keeps us from feeling like we’re one of those bands trying to deliver a specific message, we like leaving ourselves open to interpretation”
As a small market town Beverly is known for a few things, but one of the first ones to spring to mind probably isn’t the creation of progressive and experimental soundscapes. Jonathan Birch and Josh Meredith are the two halfs on Alison Angus who make exactly this type of changelling and exciting music with a combination of guitars, drums and keyboards. Many people thought they had heard the last of this progressive duo when they anounced their split at a final gig at the Lamp late last year “At one point, we began to believe we’d done all we could as two people and wanted to expand with a bigger sound. At first adding new members would have been like bigamy to us but we believed new members would open doors to more possibilities so we started up another band called “Fenrir’s Ocean” and put Alison Angus on hold to see what would happen” explain Josh and Birch about the duo’s Hiatus “Even bigamy has its advantages. However, the band faced a lot of difficulties before it even started with the both of us struggling to even get all the members in the same room, let alone start the writing process, which in itself was highly frustrating without the tight chemistry in the air we were both used to as a collective unit. We both decided to eventually call it a day and carry on how we’d always been most comfortable”
Considering their ill fated band project “Fenrir’s Oceon” is named after a monsterous wolf from Norse mythogology destined to remain chained to a rock until doomsday, appropriate considering it’s eventuall demise, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that songs about women, money and wearing the same jeans for two months are a little thin on the ground. The pairs music is a dark and brooding of marriage of Leeds outfit iLiKETRAiN’s 
etherial post-rock and the sheer viceral experimentation of Sonic Youth with sprawling atmospheric tracks entitled “From Beaneath the Endless Oceans” or “Glowing Embers Streak The Sky” full of sweeping drum beats and crashing guitars that blend seemlessly with majestic and delicate quiet moments that sound more like the suggestion of a song in parts, a ghost or a whisper. Live their music is one large epic performance, more about the creation of sounds and seemless storytelling rather then seperate, short songs. “One of the best moments of a good gig is that point where we’re skimming stones of notes across the audience and it’s like playing to an exam hall.” comments Birch thoughtfully “The place feels united in one idea and to be the ones conveying that across is amazing, especially when it surprises people. We’re both usually too caught up in what we’re doing on stage to notice, but we usually judge it by the level of silence during the quieter moments”
“It’s like a crazy jigsaw of our emotions and ideas, we just turned up to some improv sessions and laid pieces down until we got the bigger picture” adds Birch “We turn up to gigs and hang up the paintings”
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