Album Review: ...And Then We Saw Land - Tunng

Tunng's new album greets listeners like a long lost friend coming in and giving you a big romantic passionate kiss. ...And Then We Saw Land's opening track 'Hustle' is so infectious that offering it upfront without the listener having put in any effort whatsoever feels like a treat akin to early payday in December.

The problem with early pay is that it leaves you feeling short-changed in January as the weeks drag on. BlackPlastic wouldn't go so far as to acuse Tunng of giving us the same feeling but the tone and pace of the album innevitably dips from this heady start.

Yet ...And Then We Saw Land is a lovely piece of melodic folk music that manages to contain electronic flourishes and reflects elements of anti-folk in it's lo-fi feel and the likes of múm in its playfulness. And when it works it really bloody works: 'The Roadside', for example, features a fantastic wandering, almost meandering introduction and builds in a lovely cinematic fashion.

So Tunng's album is by no means a mixed bag - it just has some good bits and some utterly sublime bits, like on that album opener or the stop-start rhymic vocals of 'Sashimi'. ...And Then We Saw Land is a grand day out of a record. A joyful, joyful experience - it feels like a car journey at the beginning of a holiday.

Download 'Don't Look Down Or Back' on MP3 by Tunng, taken from ...And Then We Saw Land [right click, save as].

BP x

...And Then We Saw Land is out on tomorrow, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Review: Boca Negra - Chicago Underground Duo

Boca Negra - it evokes foreign places, exoticism and, meaning "black mouth" evokes feelings of infinity (it apparently represents an endless consumption of information). And Chicago Underground Duo sound like they should have made house music back when house was a place not a genre.

They don't, however. But Boca Negra is no less exciting for that fact. Instead it is just too damn cool, Chicago Underground Duo's sounds creating an effortless yet sophisticated and ultimately considered melange.

Chicago Underground Duo's album is ultimately a free-jazz-folk-music affair. Yet if, as they say, writing about music is as stupid as dancing about architecture then you could argue that assigning a genre to music like this feels as ridiculous as skydiving about partical physics.

What there is no argument over is the fact that Boca Negra is a beautiful record. Whether soothing, as on the refined and soulful 'Vergence', or obtuse, funky and playful as on 'Spy On The Floor' it is a shattered picture frame of enticing images. In some respects it is a collection of mood pieces but played with such aplomb, such attention to detail that it sounds like the soundtrack to the best movie you have never seen.

Boca Negra is a cinematic album and it is at its best when full of the space and exposed, broken rhythms as on 'Lauging With The Sun'. Like much great instramental music different people will feel different things from listening to Chicago Underground Duo: BlackPlastic feels a sense of wonderment.

BP x

Preview Chicago Underground Duo's Boca Negra by downloading the MP3 of 'Spy On The Floor' [right click, save as].

Boca Negra is out now on Thrill Jockey, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and LP [affiliate links].

Album Review: FabricLive 50 - dBridge & Instra:mental present Autonomic

dBridge & Instra:mental's Autonomic mix for FabricLive eschews expectations for a drum 'n' bass mix by slowing things down. Right down.

After collaborating on a track together, dBridge and Instra:mental collaborated to form Autonomatic - ultimately a club night with spin-offs, the most significant of which is, as the press release say, ultimately a style of music.

Because FabricLive 50 doesn't just slow things down. It is considerably slower than even a breakbeat set, with the tempo coming in below a chilled out 100bpm. This is still distinctively dnb though, and both dBridge (formerly part of the fairly legendary Bad Company) and Instra:mental clearly know their craft.

The album opener, Riva's 'Seems Like', glides a soulful vocal over a spacious backing that gently melds into Instra:mental's own 'From The Start' but as soulful as the whole thing feels the beats are deep, percussive and ultimately pure liquid drum 'n' bass.

But slow drum 'n' bass sounds about as much fun as stretching out the Queen's speech to last the whole of Christmas day, Boxing day and maybe even right up to New Year's Eve... Surely the point is that it gets you moving, the rolling basslines, pitched vocals, and the last thing we want is more bloody dubstep.

But as we said, dBridge and Instra:mental clearly know what they are doing. Just as liquid dnb made BlackPlastic's heart go aquiver about eight years ago by giving the genre vocals and, as a result, a tune, FabricLive 50 works because of the space the production gets. There are relatively few vocals here as it happens but the speed gives the album an intelligent, soulful feel more reminiscent of Jazzanova and the Compost label than any dnb or dubstep we ever heard.

FabricLive 50 is actually fairly reminiscent of Global Communication's Fabric album (Fabric 26), robotic yet soulful... Ferocious let subtle. By redefining what drum 'n' bass is dBridge and Instra:mental have just pushed a genre forward that desperately needed innovation. Dubstep be damned - dnb died and Autonomic just brought it back.

BP x

Check out the 30-minute promo mix over at Fabric's MixCloud page.

FabricLive 50 is out on 15 February, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD [affiliate link].

Album Review: Acolyte - Delphic

Delphic have always pretty much had 'BlackPlastic' written all over them. At least metaphorically speaking, though we are open to sponsorship deals. Their method of writing music using laptops and then recreating the result using live instruments tends to suggest the kind of rock-influenced-dance we go all wobbly for (and we certainly enjoyed 'Counterpoint').

So the debut album was always going to be anticipated - particularly when you throw in Ewan Pearson on production duties. The references are obvious - yes, Acolyte sounds a lot like some New Order and, to be honest, even more like 2008's Friendly Fires debut.

And whilst BlackPlastic loves both of those bands it is this inherent similarity that holds Acolyte down a little. There is a danger that they don't do enough to stand out, sometimes even from themselves, with certain songs sounding similar.

Yet they can clearly write a tune. Current single 'Doubt', with sample vox rhythms and near-spoken verse is all metallic perfection, less played and more built. Both 'This Momentary' and 'Counterpoint' tread a thin line between emotional technology and plain Emo, but ultimately feel all the more engaging for it. This is dance music for the car and the train journey - a nice rhythm but it is as more about the head as the feet.

It is title track 'Acolyte', 'Remain' and the catchy 'Red Lights' that make this album though. The former is the only true instrumental, rousing and epic like trance played by a live band, whilst 'Remain' is the closest the album gets to house, with a skippy beat and warmer bass combined with a melancholic piano refrain. As the album's last track proper it makes a fitting conclusion prior, although it is a shame the progressive house blast off of 'Afterstate' got relegated to an iTunes exclusive.

'Red Lights' is the opposite of these tracks - heady, excitable and quite probably ill-advised. It's the pre-credits airport taxi-dash into the arms of the unobtainable A-list movie star. It's the excitable first kiss of punching above your romantic weight. It's leaving behind jobs, problems and history. And the enthusiasm is beautifully infectious - like watching someone so in love that it rubs off.

What the above tracks prove is that Delphic are a better band than Acolyte is an album. The contrast of 'Doubt' to 'Remain' to 'Afterstate' to 'Acolyte' to 'Red Lights' - there are enough ideas here to make a great album, it is just that what remains feels a little sub-par in comparison.

BP x

Acolyte is out now, available on Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].

Album Revew: There Is Love In You - Four Tet

Four Tet has long been one of electronic music's true pioneers. Not satisfied with the status quo each release from Kieran Hebden seems determined to push the envelope in a slightly different fashion.

It is an approach which has won him many fans. Especially when the experimental approach has come together with the right aesthetic and, importantly, tunes, as on the legendary 'folktronica' Rounds.

And to cut a long story short There Is Love In You doesn't disappoint. Finding a happy middle ground somewhere between the slow emotive tunes of Rounds and the more 'out there' sound of Everyhing Ecstatic, Four Tet's new album sounds like someone who has finally found their natural sound. Which means the focus can truly be on the detail.

As on the slowly evolving 'Love Cry'. With its casual but tight live rhythm section and bouncing bass it is a song that wraps itself around your cranium like melting ice around a cold drink.

There Is Love In You pushes Hebden's sound simultaneously towards the organic and the electronic. With the low-slung vibes of Flying Lotus, complete with twisted vocal samples, combined with meticulously detailed, tight rhythms this album sounds like a J Dilla experiment that fell from the heavens only to be reconstructed by someone with no idea which bit goes where. And that is a glorious thing.

So this is an album that evolves things, sure... But it hasn't lost sight of what made its predecessors great.  With melodies that carry emotion and production that makes you want to move this is electronic music for all. 

Last year we benefited from a number of bands who finally sounded like they were at the top of their game - comfortable in their own sound. This is another one of those albums. There Is A Love In You doesn't change the game in the same way Rounds did. Instead it just proves Four Tet is better at the bloody game.

BP x

You can currently stream There Is Love In You in its entirety at Four Tet's SoundCloud page.

There Is Love In You is out on Domino on Monday, available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on CD now [affiliate link].