Witness: Before The Calm – album review

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing Gerald Starkie’s solo revisiting of Witness’s debut album: I’ll try not to repeat myself so please click here to read my Witness ‘origin story’. Now the ‘full-fat’ version of ‘Before The Calm’ has been reissued and pressed onto vinyl for the first time (a limited run of 250 copies – get in there quickly) and the band are playing a couple of reunion shows in Bristol and – fittingly already sold-out – Wigan to celebrate. There hasn’t been a better time to be a Witness fan since the turn of the millennium.

1999 was an odd time for guitar-music. The echoes of Brit-Pop’s tawdry death-throes were finally fading and – if memory serves correctly – the indie-adjacent world had nose-dived into some kind of Chilli-Peppered/Nu-Metal hideousness. A perfect time – then – for something sweeter and more heartfelt. Enter Witness – a Wigan band signed up by Island Records. Their music stuck out as something strikingly different then and, pleasingly, still does now.

Starkie’s solo version of these songs highlighted the aching, country-twanged croon of his vocals and the timeless strength of the songwriting, raw and vulnerable. Phil Vinall’s widescreen production here stands as an object lesson in keeping those strengths to the fore, whilst allowing the band to explore the grooves and sonic-spaces in the music to full effect. ‘Cause And Effect’ fizzles with electronic bloops and feedback to cradle the vocal’s bruised pain, whilst beautifully wistful opener ‘Second Life’ builds from a hushed, glockenspiel-chiming opening to the kind of folky-country-rock that still fills many playlists today. The influence of late ‘80s REM lurks in the corners of these melodies, but Witness do something fresh with the 60’s tropes that influenced the nascent Americana scene. You can hear where this music is coming from, but it never feels inorganic or derivative.

Ray Chan’s guitar constantly finds interesting angles – the naggingly insistent, almost discordant line on ‘Scars’ sticks in a corner of the brain and refuses to leave. I wrote at length about ‘Scars’ in my earlier piece, so I won’t bang on and on about it again…but…jeeze. Tuuune! Chan’s given full reign to stretch-out on moody epics like ‘Freezing Over Morning’, using feedback and harmonics to create mood and intensity. Dylan Keeton’s bass is fluid and supple, almost the lead melodic instrument on some of the mellower tracks: ‘Heirloom’ is the prime example.

John Langley’s drumming is also worth the price of admission. The former Blue Aeroplane and Strangelove-r gives ‘Scars’ and ‘Audition‘ lurching break-beats and he builds the Americana-inflected epics from delicate brush-work to something muscular and dynamic. The live shows should be amazing.

The vinyl pressing is pleasingly weighty and the music sounds warmer than my old treasured CD copy. It stands as a great testament to one of those bands whom – had history been kinder – could and should have been far more widely celebrated than they were. It’s never too late to get on board: give Witness their share of love now.

Live dates:

8th November – The Louisiana, Bristol: Tickets here

13th November – The Snug, Atherton – SOLD OUT

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All words by Dan O’Farrell. More writing by Dan can be found at hisauthor’s archive.
Dan is also on Instagram as @DOF_AND_THE_DIFFERENCE_ENGINE