Starring
Cindy, Dorian Dumont, Katy J Pearson, Planet Neil, Son of Philip, Vanadium
The Front Runners
To The Aphex : Dorian Dumont
Aphex Twin and hardcore jazz piano. That’s a combination to daunt the bravest of souls but in Dorian Dumont’s hands it’s a lesson in the thrill of taking musical risks.
There’s no denying that these interpretations are challenging stuff. It’s the kind of album that tests your resolve to leave nothing off limits. In combining jazz piano and Aphex Twin’s ambient electronica you’re not doubling the difficulty you’re squaring it. It means that if you’re not familiar with Aphex Twin, this is an unremittingly jazz piano album. Even the titles - including ‘PAPAT4 [155] [pineal mix]’ ‘180db_[130] - aren’t intended to make it easy, but we can thank Aphex Twin for that. They’re even hard to type!
Two elements make it work. The first is Dumont’s audacity in hearing the originals in a non ambient way, thinking the unthinkable, and having the technical wherewithal to give a shape to his inspiration. The second element is the production. It’s almost enough that it sounds gorgeous, rich and acoustically perfect, a studio engineer’s triumph.
Listening to this album is like watching a child whirling by on a merry go round. At full speed it’s a blurred mix of colour with occasional familiar glimpses. Occasional snatches of melody break the surface of these pieces, spinning their way up from the depths. The Aphex Twin track I knew best was ‘Avril 14th’. Here it grows from the original running time of 2’05 to an epic 7’06 while retaining the key melodic phrase.
It takes a little time to get your head around what’s happening, but by the third track ‘Icct Hedral’ you can move beyond your sense of disbelieving wonder as it starts to make sense on its own terms.
It’s a good thing that our musical universe still allows this kind of creativity and courage. It may not be an album you’ll return to, but it is an album you can admire and applaud.
Taster Track : Avril 7th
Someday Now : Katy J Pearson
Give thanks for Katy J Pearson’s quality hallmark album of excellent pop.
There’s a strong argument for claiming that the best pop requires one thing above all else - an infectious chorus. If you know that’s coming you give the rest of the song the chance to bed in, confident that your moment of release can’t be far away. It’s like waiting for the Christmas presents to be handed out around the family one by one, knowing that your turn will come. Pearson’s strength is to deliver those choruses wrapped in shiny paper and liberally sprinkled with glitter.
It doesn’t matter how the songs around them sound, for example the weird, distorted vocals that open stand out track ‘Those Goodbyes’ and recur in the background throughout. It’s strange. Waiting for the chorus allows you the space to notice the gorgeous details elsewhere in the songs. ‘Save Me’ is laden with strings but there’s a half hidden few moments where they don’t soar but slip in and out of focus, adding a dark undershadow to what would otherwise be a frothy song.
Katy J Pearson stands for quality. She’s the Waitrose of the High Street, not Poundland. Luxuriate in that. This is music with depth and intricacy, music for the chamber rather than the Philharmonic Hall and all the better for it. Her songs reassure you that all can be well in a world that allows such an approach to flourish.
Her vocals are a delight. On the one hand they can sound innocent and girly straight from the sensible, thoughtful girl next door. Almost in the same line though they can become earthier and more feisty, warning you not to overlook her.
I was surprised to see comparisons drawn between her and Kate Bush in her Spotify bio but, yes, they are there in the songs. Kirsty MacColl is a notable influence too.
With music like this you feel that everything is more than OK with the world.
Taster Track : Those Goodbyes
The Chasing Pack
Why Not Now : Cindy
Lo fi and low key it may be, but this album of struggling songs may alienate and attract fans in equal measure.
As a young altar boy I used to find Holy Week a challenge. It felt relentless and arduous, not just the never ending procession of daily stations of the cross or the added rehearsals for ceremonies we only encountered once a year, or the interminable Passion service on Good Friday afternoon but, above all, the unrelentingly oppressive blanket laid over a week of the school holidays. However it was also strangely rewarding, like struggling through a marathon or, as I now know, this album by Cindy.
There are many times when this feels painfully laboured, filled with the sense of extreme fatigue that comes from new motherhood or overwhelming jet lag. It’s a record that is often screaming out for a good night’s sleep that’s constantly out of reach.
These songs sound like dream pop shorn of effects. Its hesitant approach and the way it feels its way tentatively into the music feels like a person entering unknown territory for the first time.
Others could find a lot of positives. They’ll be the people who love the quieter side of the Velvet Underground, or the minimal quietness of early Cherry Red recordings. They’ll wallow in the feeling of ennui that comes with a song such as ‘Wednesday’.
There are moments of relief from the smothering overtones. ‘Earthly Belonging’, ‘Et Surtout’ and ‘Standard Candle #4’ bring some signs of moving into second gear. They’re flashes in the pan and the album needs more of them. The sirens at the end of ‘Wednesday’ are unexpected and almost startling and the casual whistling at the end of ‘Playboy’ is the lightest moment of the album.
So, if a band aims and commits to a specific and distinct sound, you have to applaud their dedication to realising it, even if it doesn’t work for you. That’s where I am with this record.
Taster Track : Standard Candle # 4
Organic : Planet Neil
Life of Planet Neil doesn’t seem too bad. Dance influenced music that is both listenable and movable, sophisticated and knowing.
It’s a class act, a record that has been made for listeners, not just to show off the skills of the performer or, worse still, indulge their ego. This is music that wants you to listen, wants you to move and wants to be loved.
Operating at the border of synth pop and dance music, it demonstrates that the grass is green on both sides of the fence. It’s good to listen to a song like ‘Magnet’ with its easy rhythms that are infectious and disciplined, turning you into a willing captive audience. Strings litter the album adorning tracks like ‘Contactless’ to add a veneer of luxury. The production is excellent throughout, clear and clean but with warmth too.
Unusually these are tracks that don’t outstay their welcome. They enter, set out their wares and disappear leaving you eager to explore them further. There are times when they leave the dance floor and head back to the studio but the two styles are never far from each other.
There are a couple of spoken word narratives - ‘Domestic Goddess’ and ‘Home’. They’re vignettes of the real life behind the entertainment facade. ‘Never Quite’ is beatless and gently melancholic. Elsewhere the songs are playful, quietly and knowingly resurrecting 70s disco themes, such as this love God reflection in ‘Organic’.
“I like to think that we’re organic
When we make love it’s not mechanic.”
I enjoyed this album. It’s never in your face but often in your soul.
Taster Track : Magnet.
Plastic Borough : Son of Philip
Son of Philip shows what pure electronic music can offer at its best. It takes us on a journey through electronic sound.
Good electronic music still sounds like the future and as if it has come to you from another place, distorted by distance and time. This album is dark but hopeful, as if a line has been drawn and a new start beckons. It feels as if something important has been won and can’t be lost, but it has come at a high personal cost.
Records that are big on atmosphere, as this is, can sometimes slip too easily into ambience. This is not one of those records. It demands your attention and rewards it with countless effects and transitions. In just over five minutes, ‘Messom’ limbers up and flexes its muscle as it takes you from near dance rhythms and beats to pure sound. It’s both fascinating and exhilarating. ‘Plastic Borough’ carries echoes of Olafur Arnalds in its top layer, set above a slow, grinding but strangely melodic pulse. ‘Dulwich Architect’ weaves its way through an alternative musical reality, bearing the same relation to mainstream music as Alasdair Gray’s ‘Lanark’ bears to mainstream fiction.
There’s a slightly unfortunate and unavoidable issue though. That’s the collaborations with Yiva Gronlund and the effect of her vocals. In isolation they are gorgeous. Her haunting voice contributes greatly as a separate instrument, but it nudges the album away from exciting electronic exploration to one reliant on atmosphere. I’d happily listen to her separately for longer.
That aside, ‘Plastic Borough’ is everything you could hope for from modern electronica. It’s creative, experimental and constantly engaging.
Taster Track : Messom
Better Times : Vanadium
Poppy electronica from Vanadium - it’s an enjoyable listen that won’t change your world but might make your day a little sweeter.
What’s in a name? Vanadium sounds like a late period Roman Emperor but you won’t find exaggerated pomp and majesty here. It’s also the name of a toxic chemical element but the music on this album will cause you no harm. He’s actually named after Vanadia the Scandinavian goddess of beauty. The album may not attain true beauty, but it does reach a kind of Hallmark birthday card prettiness.
This is music that can easily soundtrack procrastination. It’s enjoyable but it’s not going anywhere. It’s the one more track you'll listen to before finally going out to clean the car. Its big strength is the sunny, optimistic feel that characterises ‘Better’, ‘Times’ and ‘Lifelong’ in particular. It’s a clean, busy sound. The underlying pulse to ‘Tic-Toc’ sounds as if it was delicately cut out with a scalpel.
His Spotify bio describes his music as coming from where electronic music meets post rock. You won’t find much by way of post rock in this collection. You will find the influence of Boards of Canada in the noodly melodicism in more abstract tracks such as ‘Before Summer’ And IDM practitioner Mike Paradinas aka U-Ziq would be pleased with the lighter almost skittish touches across the album.
There’s a weird sense in tracks where he deploys treated backing vocals, - ‘Lifelong’ stands out - that he’s captured and held the Mike Sammes Singers in a sealed recording studio, bringing them out to add a dash of sixties sophistication to the mix.
‘Better Times’ is an engaging and likeable listen even if, ultimately, it’s light on presence or substance.
Taster Track: Lifelong
Playlists
As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cSveL7NpVp1xgrKxPe4av?si=SkFlSnvySeuYFpgG0WJFmA or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.
The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7Eh_sy55y6i18Qj7w_Z3CQft
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