“The community we’ve built our life around – artists, musicians and the people who gravitate to these things as a way of communicating – are struggling to reconcile how they fit into an increasingly cruel world. This album, the themes and the lyrics are directed towards them because I think there are still reasons to be optimistic. There are amazing things happening all around us and it’s up to communities like ours to double down on the things we believe in. It feels as if being part of a group like Modern Nature and making an album that’s open, optimistic and ambitious is in itself part of the solution.”
In discussing Modern Nature’s new album ‘The Heat Warps’, Jack Cooper, band leader, guitarist and vocalist sets out the challenges facing the group and likeminded artists. The statement is indicative of the thoughtful way in which they construct their music. Although their 2023 album ‘No Fixed Point In Space’ had its moments of beauty, it was perhaps too freeform and elastic to grab attention. In contrast, ‘The Heat Warps’ reflects a conscious effort to be more direct and focused. It is a fine balancing act to take what had made them distinct – music that mixed Talk Talk at their most abstract with added motorik beats, and lyrical themes of relationships with nature, collectivism and the weight of consciousness – and coax it into a more immediate form.
One of the main changes this time was that the core trio of Cooper, Jeff Tobias (bass) and Jim Wallis (drums) have been augmented by a second guitarist, Tara Cunningham. This expansion of the main band has enabled a contraction in their overall unit – previous albums have featured up to 15 musicians whereas on ‘The Heat Warps’ the four members are sufficient to achieve their aims.
How well this new approach works is exemplified by opening track, ‘Pharoah’. It is a song about the people that we are conditioned to respect as politicians and leaders, contrasting them with those who inspire us to think differently such as Pharoah Sanders. The manner in which the two guitars mirror each other as they weave intricate patterns around the rhythm section is mesmerising. The demos that Television made with Brian Eno served as an influence and it is apparent in the way they make guitar music that avoids any of rock’s histrionics. Although it is a highly adventurous sound, it avoids the route taken by, say, Sonic Youth or Captain Beefheart in creating an immediately challenging and abrasive noise. Instead, it is understated, and the lyrics are quite opaque with their references to all forms of outdoor materials (hedgerow, granite, leaves) and even the more stirring statements (“we take the mountains / we take the fences / we take them in, our proud offences”) has enough ambivalence to make it unclear whether this should be cheered.
It is fair to assume that ‘Radio’ was not constructed as an attempt to dominate the airwaves. Its theme is capitalism’s contempt for the natural world and musically it utilises the stately traditions of slowcore. The combination of Cooper’s and Cunningham’s voices recall Low. While Mimi Parker’s vocals are incomparable, the chorus of “there’s a fire all around / there’s a fever in the air” induces a similarly emotional shiver. They return to this approach on the brief, minimalist ‘Jetty’ with a low-key thrill in its “makes me glow inside” line and ‘Zoology’ which has a fragile melody and the most understated drumming. The more mid-tempo ‘Glance’ has a buzzing, whirring quality to its guitars and is a breezy celebration of the outdoors that namechecks Windermere.
‘Source’ was inspired by the misinformation fuelled 2024 UK riots. Watching them streamed on YouTube, Cooper was gripped and appalled but also seeing in communities similar to those in which he grew up the desire for community and collectivism, albeit misplaced. Constructing a gently uplifting song that is the opposite of riotous is an interestingly nuanced approach as is even more so its chorus of “we’re singing in the lanes, we’re overtired / it feels new to me, it’s all history / there’s me standing in the riot” which drifts along with a sense of benign excitement that is at odds with the consequences of the disorder. ‘Alpenglow’ retains that sense of optimism with the realisation that “I’m finally managing to make sense of it all”, while what sounds like an organ underlays the guitar interplay.
The ninth and final track, ‘Totality’, cogently summarises what makes Modern Nature’s current iteration so charming. The song is inspired by viewing the 2024 solar eclipse in New Mexico, gazing up at the skies with hundreds of others, finding something that resonated with people and was a shared experience. It is rendered with wide-eyed, unhurried beauty and fragile melodicism.
Although ‘The Heat Warps’ represents a more structured version of Modern Nature, it is still not a sound that screams its qualities from the mountaintop. Given sufficient radio play, these songs could slowly creep up and envelope the listener but is more likely to be an album that their audience has consciously chosen to sit down with and listen to closely. It is certainly a minor key delight that rewards attention and emotional openness.
Modern Nature: The Heat Warps – Out 29 August 2025 (Bella Union)
Nature – Pharaoh (Official Video)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
