The End Times

It’s been five years, apparently, since Andrew Chalk last released a newly recorded album – recent cassettes have mopped up archival material. The End Times hints at change and renewal, but it does so in a subtle, understated manner, which is entirely befitting of Chalk and his quiet, enduring presence. He’s refined those mottled-grey, autumnal phrases that are his specialty, such that on tracks like “At Sunset,” they drip from the stereo speakers, pendulously, the after-effects of a downpour. On “House of the Holy,” Chalk seems energetic – in contrast to usual, at least – the three-minute piece cycling through a chord sequence that drops from the heavens and gets caught in a delay loop of miniature infinities. The cover’s deep-blue landscape and cloud cover is the perfect foil.