Upon entering into ?The Black Wood? one will initially find navigation hard to manage, as sounds appear from long distances, erupt and dissipate back into the dark abyss from which they sprang. Imagine echoing reverberations bouncing off the burnt out husks of trees tease the mind conjures images of what may or may not be laying in wait for you? then suddenly the dark feelings dissipate as a gentle rain begins to fall. But as the last rays of light leave and complete darkness takes over, the sounds shift their tone, implicating a rising danger moving closer towards you. Finally, when the drumming begins you know you must find your way out of this place ? and when your pace quickens, everything erupts into a head-on chase, accompanied by heavy drum and bass interplay through which a reverb-drenched guitar weaves chaos in and out of the mix?

Essentially the first three tracks of this recording would make quite a memorable soundtrack to some form of horror film or ghost tale. In many ways, this suite offers similar feelings that arise while listening to Tetsuya Ohashi?s soundtrack to Kaneto Shindo?s ?Onibaba.? The sense of juxtaposition of very spatially oriented arrangements with very structured interludes, presents a high level of tension that manages to find its way to a wonderful and very satisfying resolution with the close of the third movement.

Its rather unfortunate that the fourth track breaks the mood of the record, beginning with studio banter and ending with a sped up version of the aforementioned, the meat of the piece is nothing more than some dull jazz inspired improvisational interplay played by a bunch of scuzz rockers. Luckily The Stumps manage to recover from this falter and move back into a delicate weaving of light and dark composing a shifting tapestry of fascination and repulsion for the fifth untitled track. The remaining tracks though good do not manage to stick in the head, as much, as they venture more towards a loose improvisational noise/psyche/rock sound far away from the subtle actions of the earlier half of the recording, until the album?s closer, when they move back into the cave from which they sprang and play the listener off to a night of restless sleep. 8/10 -- Cory Card (24 October, 2007)