Burrowed Into The Soft Sky was the third album by The Doomed Bird of Providence and was the last release on Manchester label Front & Follow. It was also the first release on vinyl. Two songs, both almost twenty minutes long, that explored two contrasting but related themes. One was the savagery that frequently accompanies colonialism. The second was the occasional empathy that takes place in such a context. Although the empathy in this case was based on a work of fiction (Voss by Patrick White).
“The first composition, ‘Burrowed into the Soft Sky’, takes its cues from Patrick White’s novel Voss, based on the fateful final journey of German explorer Ludwig Leichardt. It’s a song that depicts a man’s doomed fate in his desire to explore and conquer the unforgiving lands of the Australian interior. Starting off as pastoral haze of pastoral woodwind sounds and strings that scrape and wheeze, the piece stretches out into the shimmering heat of the sun, alternating between stark minimalist folk violins and the noisy outburst of a primitivist take on post-rock designed to emphasise the swing in moods and the sweeping rawness of the environment, as the maw of the Australian landscape first captivates, then traps the characters in adversity and despair.
The second composition, ‘The Blood Dimmed Tide Is Loosed’, is a much more ominous affair, with a tense and foreboding opening of grinding cellos and piercing violin squeals that takes its lead more from horror soundtracks than post-rock instrumentals. Taking the title from one of the chapters of Exclusion, Exploitation and Extermination (and in turn from WB Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming’), there is a prelude of fear that only sets you up for a violent denouement. A crashing blast hurls the band into a maniacal frenzy. Huddled around a cascading riff that seems to go on forever while smearing and defiling their playing with squalls of feedback and the clattering of drum kits and various objects, the noise they throw out attempts to portray the sweeping tide of debased violence and virulent evil of various atrocities by white colonials committed to wiping out entire communities of aboriginals and various alien communities in the hope that “the n—-r will disappear…”. The aftermath of such barbarism sees Doomed Bird play in an almost shell-shocked manner, as cold drones waft over the carnage. But towards the piece’s climax, the apocalyptic dirges, drones, and screams rear their head again to remind the listener that there is no happy ending, or reckoning of justice. All there is is the continuation of violence and brutality.”
(The Quietus)
This is the final F&F released work that we are putting here. Going for a song at
https://thedoomedbirdofprovidence.bandcamp.com/album/burrowed-into-the-soft-sky
Interesting Fact
One thing rarely mentioned with the vinyl release is that we put a locked groove on one side. Possibly influenced by Sonic Youth’s Evol and Melbourne band No‘s first EP.
The Doomed Bird of Providence 
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