Matmos— Supreme Balloon
(Matador)According to the press release, this is Matmos at their most straightforward, taking a holiday from the avant garde. Having listened to the bizarre, ambient dawdle that is the title track, this seems a strange claim.
Weighing in at over 24 minutes it is the sort of piece that you get lost in initially and then frankly forget about its existence long before it concludes.
The earlier numbers are much more playful, all bouncy synth jams which make you feel like you are trapped in an early Sonic the Hedgehog outing.
Overall a somewhat forgettable album, which would work much better in conjunction with a piece of video art.
- Two stars
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip— Angles
(Sunday Best)On the back of ubiquitous indie radio staple 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' producer Dan Le Sac and rapper/poet Scroobius Pip achieved instantaneous popularity last summer.
Following such a memorable and unique single was always likely to prove a difficult task, but it would be fair to say on their debut LP the pair have tackled it with a modicum of success.
There can be no denying the quality of Pip's couplets, and the thoughtful nature of his lyrics are a perfect antidote to the vacuous subject matter beloved of mainstream U.S. rappers.
Le Sac's production is a solid but unspectacular accompaniment.
- Three stars
Atlas Sound— Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
(4AD)The debut solo album from Bradford Cox, frontman with San Francisco's avant rockers Deerhoof is a wonderful, trance inducing, narcotic journey through a multitude of soundscapes.
Apparently based on memories of a spell in hospital as a youngster, there are definite childlike stylings to the music and the hazy production is flavoured with the half remembrances of childhood each of us carry around.
This album could garner praise from all comers just as fellow traveller Panda Bear's Person Pitch did last year and would be deserving of just as many accolades.
Esoteric but retaining a pop sensibility, this is a real treat.
- Four-and-a-half stars
Bon Iver— For Emma, Forever Ago
(4AD)Justin Vernon's three months in a log cabin in Wisconsin has produced one of those rare albums that somehow transcends time and genre.
It's a rootsy, soulful, intimate and thoroughly addictive meditation on love and life. It has the sparseness that you'd expect from its creator's solitude, but this is a far from obvious album.
Vernon's deliciously doubletracked falsetto dips and rises like a car passing on rain soaked tarmac, while solitary four-four bass drums kick out a hypnotic backbone.
It is expansive and surprising, with not a duff track to be heard.
What Justin Vernon has created is nothing short of an enigmatic masterpiece.
- Five stars
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