Former Appliance linchpin James Brooks released this three track limited, numbered clear 7" EP on the Enraptured label in 2011 under the alias Land Observations. Housed in a sleeve containing Brooks' own artwork, which seems to show the network of Roman roads that cut their linear path across Britain and containing a small transparent plastic sheet containing a list of the cities and towns those roads connected, Roman Roads feels like a micro study into concept recording, much like a small work of art. The single was also released as a download. Brooks recorded the EP at Mute's own studio with assistance from occasional Mute producer James Aparicio, with some overdubs recorded at Brooks' own studio. The three tracks were recorded only using an electric guitar, with melodies and rhythms layered atop one another to create short pieces filled with beauty and sonorous intricacies. The tracks have a robustness that is offset by a delicate sense of harmonic simplicity, the result being three songs that are engagingly deep listening experiences yet subtle enough to exist in the background of your life. 'Octavian To Augustus' has a driving bass rhythm that feels like a denuded motorik ode to life on the autobahn, only without the nagging pulse of a drum kit, while the fragment of 'Fosse Way' has a languid, clarion quality that could have worked its way into KLF's Chill Out with grace and ease.

• published: 14 Oct 2015
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