UNDERWORLD
DRIFT SERIES 1: SAMPLER EDITION
CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL★★★★
FKA TWIGS
MAGDALENE
YOUNG TURKS★★★★
eight-minute opener Appleshine
finds Hyde robotically intoning
fragments of text over just two
hypnotic chords, while many
other tracks are founded on
similarly simple constructions.
But though one might crave
a more climactic resolution to
Imagine A Box, there are enough
glitchy details buried between its
busy arpeggios and minimalist
techno rhythms to lure one in,
and Listen To Their No’s euphoric
rush, Custard Speedtalk’s lush
comedown and Border Country’s
sustained tension exhibit all
Underworld’s most familiar
characteristics. Even short
experiments like Mile Bush Pride
are moodily enticing thanks to
Hyde’s idiosyncratic delivery
of idiosyncratic lyrics. The
boxset, furthermore, offers more
adventurous escapades, which
include a 45-minute excursion
with slow-burning improvisors
The Necks. WWbut since, in its translucent
emotional articulacy and
intricate production, it often
brings to mind Björk’s majestic
Vespertine, rest assured it’s far
from inaccessible.
In fact, this is the sound of
Tahliah Barnett declaring these
days, “A woman’s time to
embrace/ She must put herself
first”. Though the lines are
from the title track, a defiantly
feminine tune that could be Holly
Herndon attempting minimalist
soultronica, they define the entire
album. Thousand Eyes blends
kettle drums and layers of choral
vocals, and, despite digital
processing, her voice on Sad
Day and torch song Daybed is
painfully intimate. Even better is
Cellophane, where her vocals
scale impossible heights, while
Home With You and Mirrored
Heart, whose piano echoes
Radiohead, overflow with
impassioned drama. WWWhen Karl Hyde and Rick Smith
set out in November 2018 to
release new music and film
throughout the next 52 weeks,
falling short of their own high
standards wasn’t the only risk.
Were they to succeed, there’d
be a danger they’d made it look
too easy. Indeed, Drift Series
1 : Sampler Edition – available
independently of a seven-CD
and Blu-ray box containing
the entire year’s output – does
make their work look effortless:Should FKA Twigs’ second
album seem fragmented, that’s
because it was recorded when
she felt broken, emotionally
and physically: her heart ached
from a failed relationship with
actor Robert Pattinson, her
body after fibroid tumours
were removed from her uterus.
What Magdalene does,
though, is gather those broken
pieces, putting them together
in impressive fashion. It is, of
course, an experimental record,NICK BEGGS
WORDS FAIL ME
ESOTERIC ANTENNA
★★
Nick Beggs has championed the
Chapman Stick – which, played
alone on this third solo album,
sounds like a harpsichord – since
the 1980s. The instrument hasn’t
caught on, and this won’t change
that. He manages to make the
Midnight Cowboy theme sound
like Greensleeves, and an Italian
folk dance, Tarantella, doesn’t
diminish this conviction, nor a
version of JS Bach’s Sheep May
Safely Graze, which exhibits as
much passion as the Take Hart
theme tune. Still, in for a penny,
in for a pound: this offers his
two previous albums as bonus
discs, too. WW
MORCHEEBA
PRODUCTIONS
COOL YOUR SOUL
AWAL★★★
Now estranged from singer Skye
and his brother Ross’ ‘original’
Morcheeba, Paul Godfrey
pushes phat hip-hop rhythms to
the fore on this debut Productions
collection. Makes No Sense
cleverly matches West Coast
keyboard lines and echoes of
Grandmaster Flash, while Staya
While delivers a distorted,
MIA-like malevolence. Singer
Rachel Cumin’s vocals are
sometimes a little wan, but she’s
better suited to The Garden’s
60s beatnik nostalgia, while she
truly hollers out trip-hop opener
So Strong. WWTHE WHO
WHO
POLYDOR★★★
The fact that a song called
Rockin’ In Rage starts with piano
and acoustic guitars indicates
where The Who find themselves
on their 12th album. Not that it
fails to build up a sweat, and
Detour’s subtle nods to My
Generation and Baba O’Riley
provide reminders of the
self-confessed pensioners’ history,
as does, lyrically, I Don’t Wanna
Get Wise with its references to
the “snotty young kids” they once
were. More surprising is I’ll Be
Back, which drifts between
string-heavy, possibly auto-tuned
blue-eyed soul balladry and what
could almost be a rap. WWSTEPHEN HERO
DECIDUOUS ECCENTRIC
RAGOORA★★★★
Thirty years after the release of
foolishly neglected shoegazers
Kitchens Of Distinction’s debut,
frontman Patrick Fitzgerald signs
off, he says, with his solo project’s
fourth album. It’s a sombre affair,
distinguished by delicate
arrangements often featuring
cellist Semay Wu. Colin’s a
curiously uplifting portrait of a
cross-dressing cabaret artist,
while Patient’s an unsparing,
passionate depiction of the horror
of illness drawing on his day job
as a doctor. He leaves us with an
unsettling piano ballad, Don’t Say
It’s Too Late, advice one hopes
this unsung legend takes. WW