It’s always hard to review bands that never quite fit comfortably into pigeonholes. Canada’s BIG | BRAVE isn’t quite just drone, but that wide murky area we lump together as ‘experimental’.

The third full-length from the Montreal three-piece sees the band continue in the same vein as previous records: minimalist, expansive, and unconventional. It almost goes without saying there’s little in the way of regular song structures. It’s raw, often simple yet messy and challenging. It also continues the band’s trend of tracklists getting shorter and songs getting longer.

The three tracks on offer each clock in at a minimum of 10 minutes apiece. Opener ‘Sound’ features a looping drum beat that eventually dissolves into dissonance overlaid with distortion and a violin. ‘Lull’ starts off as just that; with a quiet, almost quietly poetic creep, with waves of distortion pulsing before it swells towards to the end. Closer ‘Borer’ combines the two into a 14-minute monster that is both snail-paced and crushing.

Vocalist Robin Wattie provides a focal point amid the chaos. Neither singing nor screaming, her stop-start delivery only adds the general uneasiness that the music creates. Sometimes she sounds pained, sometimes calm and almost waif-like. If Bjork listened to metal, her music might sound something like BIG | BRAVE.

Fans of the heavy but minimalist and atmospheric – for example anyone who likes Music For Megaliths [Neurot] from Steve Von Till’s Harvestman or the more avant-garde aspects of Boris – will find a lot to like within Ardor (Southern Lord)

6.0/10

DAN SWINHOE