Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Cloth’s debut album was its fabric. The musical project of Rachael and Paul Swinton, their 2019 self-titled LP was the culmination of the pair’s musical journey, a multitude of home-recorded phone notes shaped into exquisite guitar-pop songs that were celebrated both in Scotland and further afield. It was also a process that was deliberately safe and insular, the twin-sibling pair having spent years working creatively together, alone, honing a musical language that grew into something both fascinating and unique.
Having explored this way of working to its full potential, both on that debut album and the four-song Low Sun EP - the band’s first release via their new home of Rock Action Records (Mogwai, Arab Strap, The Twilight Sad) - Rachael and Paul turned their tried-and-trusted approach on its head. First they stepped out of the bedroom, building their own studio where new ideas would have the time and space to flourish in their own right, and then by opening themselves to outside influence for the first time, working with producer Ali Chant (Yard Act, Katy J Pearson, Squirrel Flower) for their new LP, released in early 2023.
The result is Secret Measure, an adventurous next step, consisting of ten brand-new recordings that make for a markedly enthralling leap forward. Sketched out in their Glasgow studio in the early months of 2022, Cloth then stepped out of their comfort zone, travelling to Chant’s Bristol studio to complete the album. “We've never worked with someone in a traditional producer role before, and we wanted to try something totally different from what we've done in the past,” Paul explains of the process. “It was about being more open to the idea of risk-taking compared to our previous work that has been more careful and meticulous”
The Vinyl LP is on coloured vinyl and is with an MP3 download code.