list.co.uk/music ELECTRONIC MARIBOU STATE Kingdoms In Colour (Ninja Tune) ●●●●●
ELECTRO POP CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS Chris (Because) ●●●●● Records | MUSIC
Maribou State have come a long way since their early single releases. From success with tracks such as ‘Scarlett Groove’ and a string of Majestic Casual remixes such as their version of Ultraista’s ‘Gold Dayzz’, the electronic music- making duo are back with their second full-length album, Kingdoms In Colour. It’s a mixed bag of a record, with some real standout tracks, but others – such as ‘Turnmills’ almost techno-esque sound – which seem slightly at odds with the rest.
First single, ‘Feel Good’, is a definite success; featuring the effortlessly cool,
chilled-funk trio Khruangbin. Here, the relentless guitar-riff and edited vocal hook works to create a truly innovative – and addictive – sound. The pair are reunited with the wonderful vocals of singer Holly Walker, familiar
to fans from debut album Portrait’s huge single ‘Midas’. Sounding like part of the group, Walker’s smooth and understated work contributes to Maribou State’s trademark chilled, head-nod style. ‘Nervous Tics’ is undoubtedly one of the biggest earworms here, and it seems that, in general, the duo make better music when Walker is in the mix.
There are some melancholy moments, with a sense of epicness reminiscent of a film score at times. Tracks such as ‘Vale’ feel like a small shift in the sound we’ve come to associate with the duo, lacking the electronic drops which set their music up so well for club remixes and after-party selections.
French singer / performer Heloise Letissier first introduced her all-singing, all-dancing Christine and the Queens project via the streamlined electro pop of Chaleur Humaine. Now this intriguing Gallic pop star moves the goalposts a smidgen by striking a scribble through the latter part of her stage name, and declaring ‘it’s very much you allowing yourself to be even more, you know’. If you say so – though others might just call it a bit of a contrived concept and an image change for album two. Letissier has already struck a chord with her focus on gender politics. For Chris,
she has accentuated her androgyny, taking inspiration she says from Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Romeo – not that that is necessarily conveyed in the music. And there’s the rub: Christine and the Queens is an integrated audio-visual experience where the entrancing choreography – part street dance, part modern ballet – masks some pretty banal electro pop.
This time round, Letissier at least injects a modicum of funk with bass wobble,
hi hat, vocal inflections and finger clicks lifted straight from Michael Jackson on the uncluttered ‘Comme Si’. The clean, trebly sound is refined even further on ‘Girlfriend’ which adds in some Nile Rodgers-style lean funk guitar for that je ne sais quoi appeal. ‘Doesn’t Matter’, hailed by Letissier as a ‘cathedral’, is her hooky, staccato
Maribou State began writing this record after a year’s touring, citing international musing on faith in a higher power, and she references north African vocal
influences as inspiration, which is apparent in the mish-mash of moods and sounds. They're talented musicians whose unique brand of instrumental-led and vocally heightened music provides a great contribution to chilled-out, high-quality electronica, and they also make careful and successful choices in their features and collaborations. There’s enough good music here
to ensure this album succeeds; it just lacks a bit of ‘oomph’. (Kenza Marland) ■ Out Fri 6 Sep.
traditions alongside a spare funk bassline (think Frankie Knuckles’ ‘Your Love’) on ‘Goya Soda’. ‘Damn (What Must A Woman
Do)’ is the kind of machine funk mover which Beyonce would do a number on, but is handled here with an unflustered economy of expression. In fact, the entire album is sonic nouvelle cuisine – classically crafted and presented, though wafer thin and insubstantial in places and lacking the body to really satisfy the senses. (Fiona Shepherd) ■ Out Fri 21 Sep.
ROCK MADELEINE KENNEY Perfect Shapes (Carpark Records) ●●●●● TURKISH PSYCHEDELIA GAYE SU AKYOL Istikrarli Hayal Hakikattir (Glitterbeat) ●●●●●
Madeline Kenney is clearly in a hurry. Just a few months after the release of her 2017 debut Night Night at the First Landing, the Oakland singer, songwriter, neuroscientist, nanny and baker was back in the studio collaborating with Wye Oke’s Jenn Wasner who took production duties on what has now become the ten-track Perfect Shapes. Yet, the end result has no sense of someone rushing anything, as there is measure and restraint and tenderness among each number. The shimmering and loopy ‘Bad Idea’ has a Heaven or Las Vegas-era
Cocteau Twins sheen about its chorus while lead single ‘Cut Me Off’ has jerkier guitar rhythms (and a great promo video where she dances about an office building) but slips off into an ambient dreamscape around the two-thirds mark. At this point, Kenney’s own description of her sound as ‘twang haze’ should finally make perfect sense. The muggy summer feel of ‘No Weekend’ also takes a quick turn off the road when you least expect it, though this time with discordant, Bowie-esque brass instrumentation. There’s also a touch of the warmer months in ‘The Flavor of the Fruit Tree’ but it might be too much of a saccharine-fuelled Lily Allen take-off in places for some.
Not that there’s much time to get annoyed at any of the songs, with the longest track clocking in at the four-and-a-half minute mark. So when a
lesser-enjoyed beast such as the largely directionless ‘I Went Home’ gurgles to its end, the title track looms immediately into view with an insistent synth-pop vibe which could also easily accompany mojitos by the pool, but which winds down into an airy dissolve. Leaving the best for very nearly last, penultimate song ‘Your Art’ is a swooning, instant indie classic with sharp guitar interruptions and a vocal melody that threatens to take off into outer space. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Out Fri 5 Oct.
‘Dreams keep you awake and it is time to wake up!’ writes Istanbul’s Gaye Su Akyol in the notes to her third album, Istikrarli Hayal Hakikattir. Translating as ‘Consistent Fantasy Is Reality’ the album title reflects Akyol’s dream of pure freedom, a ‘dreaming practice’ that challenges the increasingly oppressive reality of Erdogan’s Turkey, and the conservative turn of the wider world. ˘
Akyol’s music will appeal to fans of the 1970s Anatolian psychedelia that’s gained a cult Western following – the great Selda Bagcan, Erkin Koray, Baris ¸ Manço et al – but it’s no retro affair. While her previous album Hologram Imparatorlugu arrived in a swirl of cinematic strings and twanging surf guitars, Istikrarli Hayal Hakikattir opens with a more contemporary punch, as an analogue synth squelches out a huge modal riff, followed by a syncopated strut and spidery guitars. Akyol enters, her voice graceful and poised as she picks apart consensus reality. ˘
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The gorgeous ballad ‘Bagrimizda Tas’ (‘Stones In Our Bosom’) follows, its dreamy melody graced by acoustic guitars, baglama and hand percussion. An eerie organ underlines the song’s bleak reflections on alienation and the quashing of human potential. ‘Gölgenle Bir Basima’ (‘All Alone With Your Shadow’) is darker still, a slow gothic creep set to electronic beats, sinister guitar and an apparition of strings. Akyol makes good use of a horn section on ‘Meftunum Sana’ (‘Captivated By You’), their sustained chords setting up a tortured meditation on ‘the blind darkness of love’. A freewheeling saxophone solo drives home the sense of abandonment. There’s a nod to Turkish rock tradition with a cover of Baris Manço’s ‘Hemserim Memlkeket Nire’ (‘Where Are You From, Mate?’), but its lyrics – ‘our earth is already broken and uninhabitable/no need to divide it more and more’ - fit perfectly with the album’s radical internationalist message. (Stewart Smith) ■ Out Fri 26 Oct. ¸
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1 Sep–31 Oct 2018 THE LIST 81