If you need a soundtrack to rolling down a hill into a netherworld of drugged woodland creatures, then Forest Fire are for you. Luckily, they focus on the darker aspects that their woodsy name suggests, rather than the more pastoral, and end up sounding like The Velvet Underground had they been predisposed to bouts of animal husbandry. What’s strongest about them, though, is how they make the epic sound effortless – the concluding
‘Visions In Plastic’ a whirling and heady case in point. The potential for unfocused drudgery could’ve been huge, but they’ve sidestepped far enough to create an involving and endearingly creepy work.

Daniel Ross