[rating=4.00]
Glitchy, techy, not too upbeat but not too down… this is a great album. It pulls together quality elements of the likes of Dntel and Royksopp while retaining a distinct enough sound to be interesting. Listening to it, one feels both comforted by its familiarity and yet uncertain of quite where it’s going next.
The glitchy part comes out heavily on tracks such as “Wildfire,” which grinds along with Yukimi Nagano’s breathy vocals interspersed across grindy, dirty synth lines, and “Sanctuary,’ featuring Jessie Ware and Sampha, which has the aesthetic of a gospel singer running into a mid-80s Atari soundtrack – in a good way.
Other tracks feel more filled with longing or uncertainty, an echo of attractive loneliness of the urban dweller hiding in tracks such as “Right Thing to Do” (again with Jessie Ware and Sampha) and “Never Never” (featuring Sampha). They make this author want to go wander the streets of New York, seeing the grit and dirt and yet reveling in the lights, the energy, the pulse that is a modern metropolis.
Music can transport one to a place not their own; this is an album that, in the right environment, has that capacity.
