MUSIC | RECORDS ALBUM OF THE ISSUE
ELECTRONIC KONX-OM-PAX Ways of Seeing (Planet Mu) ●●●●● It’s hard not to feel that Tom ‘Konx-Om-Pax’ Scholefield has been an underrated presence amid the canon of great electronic musicians to have emerged from Glasgow in recent years. As an animation and sleeve designer, his work is synonymous with the
aesthetic of artists including Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and Oneohtrix Point Never; yet his own musical output isn’t quite as eagerly raved about as it deserves to be. His lush, imaginative and sonically adventurous soundscapes bear
positive comparison with the likes of Machinedrum and Oneohtrix Point Never himself, and Ways of Seeing capably expands upon the promise of the title, playfully fusing experiments in mood with a well-developed sense of what makes a rhythm addictive. Scholefield’s instinct is for dark, icy slabs of synthetic sound, evidenced on opener ‘LA Melody’, a sinister Michael Mann soundtrack of the mind made while working with Hudson Mohawke in the titular city. Further collaborative efforts yield something of the aesthetic of the guest artists involved; a warm ambient glow surrounds ‘Saule Acid’, made in conjunction with Sylvia Kastel, for example, while Nightwave features on the rave-flavoured ‘I’m For Real’.
On ‘Rez’, the title reference to Scotland’s most famous warehouse rave belies the gentle groove of the song, while the mood lightens with the bright, contemporary pop style of the appropriately named ‘Optimism Over Despair’ and ‘Magenta One’. There’s a fresh, cinematic sense of timelessness to much of the music here, an odd feeling of warmth despite the fact that Scholefield’s experiments appear to revel in the lack of overt human sound or presence. (David Pollock) ■ Out Fri 14 Jun.
INDIE POP SACRED PAWS Run Around the Sun (Rock Action) ●●●●●
The arrival of this second album by Glasgow-based duo Sacred Paws, winners of the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2017 for debut Strike a Match, feels like a brisk return from a group who are clearly under a reasonable amount of pressure to get things right after the increased attention which has now fallen upon them. Yet nor does anything about this record feel unduly bashed out or rushed; clearly, Rachel Aggs and Eilidh Rodgers aren’t just a skilled pop songwriting team, but they’re also a remarkably efficient one. That this album is here just in time for summer is a good thing, because the
music which fills it feels like it was made to be listened to in the sunshine. Aggs’ guitar lines skip and prowl impatiently around the songs, bearing all those previously remarked-upon highlife influences, but also a dose of early-90s shoegaze and indie-pop’s aesthetic. In ‘What’s So Wrong’, for example, there are swirls of reverb painting vivid pictures over Rodgers’ rattling drum fills, while in the swooning but urgent opener ‘The Conversation’ there are heavy hints of the Cure; it’s no wonder Sacred Paws have found a home on Mogwai’s Rock Action label.
This is a record of no great stylistic leaps, but rather a solid commitment to get everything as right as the pair managed last time, while expanding upon the sheer artisan craft of what they do. It’s hard to understate their seemingly effortless ability for sculpting something of the perfect pop experience in
every song, such as the upbeat revoking of anxiety in the brass- surfing ‘Life’s Too Short’ or the taut harmonies and urgent lyricism of ‘Write This Down’, a far-distant cousin of the Stones Roses’ spectral funk. Throughout, Aggs writes words not for love songs but relationship songs, their lyrics fusing a sense of realism with joy in human contact. Their return is rich in rewarding emotional depths, but they make it all sound so easy. (David Pollock) ■ Out now.
FUNK ROCK SINKANE Dépaysé (City Slang) ●●●●● INDIE FOLK CALEXICO AND IRON & WINE Years to Burn (City Slang) ●●●●●
A collision of Sinkane’s journey to date, Dépaysé reckons with their place in today’s turbulent world. Sinkane is the musical project of Ahmed Gallab, who was born in London to Sudanese parents and emigrated to America at the age of five. He played in several mid-2000s electronica acts (such as Caribou and Yeasayer), and Sinkane’s music is equally informed by them as it is by West African highlife and psychedelic folk-rock. On this album, Sinkane attempts to capture the sound of the live band, using their energy to underscore lyrical themes of inclusivity (the album title is a French word that means ‘to be removed from one’s habitual surroundings’ – reflecting Gallab’s dislocation in our modern political climate).
‘Everybody’, the album’s opening track, sets the stage with a rallying call-and-
response of ‘Everybody! Means everybody!’, followed by lines like ‘Now I’m feelin’ stronger/Even after the truth/Stand up cause you gotta/Together we can change the news’. Although lyrics such as these can be on the nose, the band reflect this faith in humanity with their energy, as every word is met with an explosive melting pot of global sounds. Drums are pounded, synths explode and guitars fizzle throughout. This blending of world music continues throughout the album – on the track ‘Stranger’, Gallab sings in multiple languages over strutting drums, before the vocals fall away altogether, replaced by a blistering funk rock guitar. Unfortunately, the force of the music and the well-meaning lyrics cannot sustain the entire album, and at points it feels like we are treading ground we have already
covered. By the time the surging psychedelia of ‘The Searching’ and the sweet ‘Mango’ come about, the dynamism of the music has worn off. Sinkane are celebrated as a live act, with the band adding a new sense of vigour and joy to their already upbeat music. This new album captures that spirit, but also leaves the listener longing. For all the globetrotting sounds and liveliness, the album often loses its sense of adventure. (Sean Greenhorn) ■ Out now.
108 THE LIST 1 Jun–31 Aug 2019
Ahead of the latest collaboration between two of US indie-folk’s staples, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam reckoned that this album had an ‘ambiguous title, because life is complicated’. Listening to the eight tracks from Years to Burn, the first official hook-up between Calexico (Joey Burns and John Convertino) and Beam since 2005, it’s clear that the world has the capacity to be a much more straight-forward place where lovely vocal melodies and nifty chord progressions can reign supreme. Recorded over four December days in Nashville, there’s a detectable country
undercurrent to the record with opener ‘What Heaven’s Left’ and ‘Father Mountain’ both spinning quickly into joyfully tuneful Jayhawks-esque stomps. ‘Midnight Sun’ sandwiches those two with a slightly more meditative slice of alt-folk that finally powers over the line via a triumphant jam. Providing a spirited change of pace, short instrumental mood piece ‘Outside El Paso’ could be the result of Tom Waits getting the Ouija board out to channel the spirit of Miles Davis, while the CD’s other major leftfield contribution, ‘The Bitter Suite’, is a zig-zagging eight-minute epic which has more gear shifts than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
‘Follow the Water’ harks back to yonder folky times by hinting at classic Neil
Young with its early strumming before becoming its very own highly contemporary thing. Closer ‘In Your Own Time’ sounds like the kind of swinging shanty number you’d end a good night on, and its inclusion here certainly makes it appear that the boys had plenty fun making this record. Perhaps they might not leave it as long before booking studio time together in the future.
Since that 2005 EP, the years which have lapsed between collaborations have been mainly due to circumstances rather than any sense of enmity. A lot of indie-folk water has flowed under both of their bridges in that interim period, but if timing is everything, then Calexico and Iron & Wine have synchronised matters to perfection. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Out Fri 14 Jun.