Rattle

U.K. duo Rattle consists solely of two drummers who harness a stripped-down setup to generate vast, frequently mesmerizing sonic landscapes rooted in post-punk principles yet free of the genre’s conventional elements. Positioned opposite one another at their drum kits, the drummer/vocalist combination of Katharine Eira Brown and Teresa Wrigley produces skeletal compositions that soundman Mark Spivey augments in performance through live dub-inflected mixing. After issuing a self-titled four-song EP in 2014 and a self-titled full-length album in 2016, the pair delivered 2018’s Sequence, which comprised only four extended pieces that remained austere and spectral while retaining forceful impact.

The project originated in Nottingham in 2011 when Brown and Wrigley, who had first connected while performing with their earlier groups Kogumaza and Fists, convened for a jam session. Although they initially envisioned a conventional guitar-and-drums configuration, the musicians soon recognized that the dual-drum approach felt more organic and compelling. They adopted the name Rattle and assembled an initial repertoire shaped by post-punk’s emphasis on rhythm, its reinterpretation of dub techniques, and the inventive songwriting demands imposed by their limited instrumentation. The four tracks from the 2014 EP were later re-recorded for the 2016 album; in support of that release the duo toured alongside Animal Collective, Protomartyr, and the Julie Ruin. Two years afterward they returned with their second album, Sequence, an extended and more trance-like work limited to four lengthy, frequently wordless pieces.