Savaging Spires pass through the songs like ghosts, drawn from the circle around since departed Midlands favorites Virgin Passages, make the most of whatever acoustic instruments might be at hand on these collected recordings. There is an exciting feeling inherent in the tracks that someone could walk into the room at any time and add percussion or piano or guitar or an additional octave in the soaring choruses. It is rare that songs of this depth and range can feel so loose – while also being delicate and swirling in intensity. You can feel the act of creation in every note or creak or cadence and it is intoxicating. The results are not overtly folk or psych or pop or rock yet they appeal to all of those senses at once. What they are is English, in the purest sense. Not London trying to be cool England, but the real England. It is odd to have an 11-track EP. Even more strange is to organize it as one track followed by 10 tracks, as is done on the sleeve, especially when it plays out in a more traditional order in practice. But everything about Savaging Spires seems to go against convention. A band that All Music likened to “Animal Collective and the Incredible String Band jamming on foundinstruments at The Residents’ house, with Mark Kozelek as guest vocalist” never ceases to surprise. This continues their habit of producing amazing results in front of a microphone, as their self-titled debut was considered by many to be an instant cult classic. “Recalling the glory days of pastoral psychedelia” according to The Wire, and receiving airplay from ardent fans in the UK on BBC Radio 1 (Tom Ravenscroft), BBC Radio 6 (Stuart Maconie), BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction) and Resonance Fm. It also found heavy rotation in the US on KALX, WFMU, WNYU, KVRX and many others. “We Could Be Dead Together” sees the band continuing to grow and leaves them presented in a way to reach even more fans of beautiful and challenging music. Late summer European tour dates will soon be announced and the band are also finishing work on their next full length, to be entitled “Horizon” which will be released this November.