Red Painted Red: That Was the Reason Why

Through the red mist of untangling the complexities of the fiercest rivalries, the said parties tend to have a lot more in common with each other than they realise.

It’s no different between Liverpool and Manchester. Separated by a 28-mile stretch of the M62 motorway, both cities have a lot in common. For starters, there’s a collective support for Labour. Hell, even the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, can be seen in the Gwladys Street end for most Everton home matches. A dyed-in-the-wool blue, it’s certainly not from that side of Manchester.

Politics aside, and with many businesses now having a presence in both cities, these days more and more people commute between the two for work. Like football, both cities are steeped in rich musical history, however (from a new music journalism perspective, at least) there still seems to be a subconscious impasse. It’s strange, but again, from the little distance that separates Liverpool and Manchester, few bands manage to adorn these pages, and it’s been no different from other local publications I’ve worked with in the past.

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Like their music, Red Painted Red break the mould. After all, the Manchester duo of Yew and Simon Carroll have shared the stage with Merseyside favourites Mugstar, so perhaps they are the source that deems this theory flawed.

Like Mugstar, Red Painted Red produce their best work in the shadows, and following an eight-year sabbatical of sorts, the band return from obscurity with their fourth record, That Was the Reason Why.

Red Painted Red have always projected obscure juxtapositions, oscillating between heart-thumping accessibly and subtle absurdity. They are band that boils down your record collection to that single record, and it’s no different with That Was the Reason Why.

Not for the faint hearted, Yew announces every morbid walk of life on opening track Human Condition, rattling off everyone from narcissists and abusers to assassins. With a seductive swarm of beats, Red Painted Red guide us through their ambiguous sound world of avant-garde-inspired industrial pop.

The atmospheres match the metaphors on following track, Astronauts. A melodic dub-infused number that Seefeel may have written had they ever considered exploring in outer frontiers of pop music.

On Come To Me and later with Bird Love, Red Painted Red conjure up fairytale fever dreams. It’s almost like This Mortal Coil skimming through Jonathan Donahue’s notebook, and results are very interesting indeed. It continues on Field of Life. Seemingly through a perspective of an earthworm, this blues-y gospel-tinged cut up is like pop music on the shrooms.

It leads down a perilous path, firstly with Knife – a shoegaze-inspired barrage that is like darkness beating down the door. Meanwhile, the ghoulish alt-pop of Silence bleeds into the disturbing Going Home – a haunting voiceover that evokes the horror of David Peace’s Red Riding series.

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“Can I recreate myself again?” questions Yew during Dances. A song that emits subtle reds and yellows whilst still simmering with undercurrents of dread.

Like an echo from the void, the power of Adrenaline almost sucks you into it. And that’s the thing about That Was the Reason Why. Something so accessible, however Red Painted Red have always been beautifully off-kilter. Music on its own terms, and what Yew and Carroll achieve is something carefully orchestrated but destined to hit in all the right places.

That doesn’t change on That Was the Reason Why. An album that is their most refined and most certainly worthy of new ears, simply because there’s something here for everybody.

That Was the Reason Why is out now via Zoharum. Purchase from Bandcamp.