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| Andy Kelly, clearly thrilled at being reviewed. |
Smirk EP
First up is Threads, either a minimalist ode to post-apocalyptic dystopia or an instrumental tribute to, erm, clothes. If it is the former then the possibly serendipitous title befits its subject matter perfectly. Looped chords of triumph snapped back sharply by a rhythmic hiccupping coat the song in a layer of delicious irony; yes it’s the future alright, but it’s fucked.
Sticking with the future motif, Motivation heralds a time when the universe is grooving to a re-skinned version of the Chock-a-Block theme, in itself no bad thing, assuming we all get to drive around in natty little faux JCB’s powered by little more than a 9 volt battery.
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| Threads: future bad. |
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| Chock-a-Block: future good. |
Heliosphere is an exercise in restraint, a soporific comedown light in incident. An admirable sentiment, but one that stands pivotally between drawing the listener deeply in or nonchalantly minding its own business whilst the world carries on without it. It's an accusation that you certainly couldn’t level at Industry; aggressive swathes of discordance sonically assault the tune in an abstract mash of intentions. It’s the BBC Radiophonic Workshop furiously battling a club beat that shouldn’t really work but somehow absolutely does. Ultimately, the listener is the victor – it’s excellent.
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| "Hands-up who's a coked-up prick?" See, to illustrate "Industry" I thought I'd bypass the obvious chimney stacks and go for the fiancial industry instead, yeah? Oh, suit yourself then. |
In Circles EP
A simple purity lies within the heart of Alluvion that’s reflective of the ambient genre at large. In stripping away layers of unnecessary texture and crucially, lyrical content, the listener derives pleasure exempt from notions of pre-rendered authorship, thus free to accept music on their terms. Demonstrably, eliciting joy from this song depends entirely on whether you think what sounds like the aural accompaniment to a sci-fi videogame character selection screen is a wonderful or a woeful thing. NB: it is wonderful, so you’re wrong.
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| Metropolis: Fritz Lang gets all expressionist on yo' ass. |
Away takes joyful relief and distils it into a two chord piano sequence. Tranquillity defined. Metropolis’ four click count-in drew a broad grin from my chops, synchronising as it did entirely with my expectations. Predictability in music is rarely a reason to celebrate, but if executed with skill as it is here, it comforts rather than offends the sensibilities. The melancholy chiming of a three chord build is no reinvention of the wheel but last time I checked, the wheel’s doing pretty fine without any refinements, thank you very much.
And finally onto Plane, the standout track by some distance. The most melodic of the bunch, it’s a genuinely cathartic listen that by law should be automatically piped to laptop and PC speakers everywhere to placate the often insane and always indignant fury of internet message boards. I guarantee we’d have online harmony in mere minutes.
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| Contrary to the terror being displayed here, the song "Plane" is beautifully relaxing. Good job I'm not a picture editor, eh? |
In summary then, mostly brilliant.
