This is the sound of someone who has found their feet; Quarantine is extremely arresting in both the way that Halo sets out her vision and the contradictions that listening to it presents.
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A Place to Bury Strangers – Worship
Make no mistake: this is a commercial record, glossy, sleek and assured; this is the sort of music bands like Editors would make if they were any good, to be frank.
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Elika – Always the Light
Giving it a spin as part of a clearout revealed a surprisingly eloquent LP, often bathed in some wonderfully dark, Cold Wave synths and effects, some tough and intelligent lyrics and a brilliantly matriarchal delivery (not that far from Madonna at times) from Evagelia Maravelias.
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Conspiracy Cinema – Propoganda, Politics and Paranoia – David Ray Carter
This is a good read and a funny, sometimes enlightening book if not one to be undertaken in an afternoon.
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Snorkel – One Long Conundrum EP
It’s an itchy work which finds some pace and momentum about eight minutes in when it decides to act as a Can tribute piece: that it holds you is testament to its inherent confidence.
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Laurence and the Slab Boys – Lo-Fi Disgrace
…this is a classic bedsit record, full of low density guitar phasing, slightly tinny sound effects, woozy textures and other lo fi “patina” bric-a-brac that somehow collide with the singer’s moody disposition.
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UMA – Drop Your Soul EP
The accent is on repetition and meditation rather than any musical proof of the artistic renaissance of the newly gleaming German capital (almost inevitably UMA are from Berlin).
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I Am Oak – Nowhere Or Tammensaari
The record is all about timing; about choosing the best moment to introduce the limited instrumentation. Thijs Kuiken’s laconic drawl is the anchor on which the sound is moored: the other key sounds that are present are stripped to the essentials.
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Hiva Oa – Future Nostalgia for Sale
Quiet, reserved, but possessing something intangible and precocious that I just can’t quite put my finger on, tracks like Urban and Ghosts steadily creep up on you.
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Jesus H. Foxx – Endless Knocking
Marvellous, ridiculously laid back and far too much fun for one sitting, surely?
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