To be honest I have really no idea what ‘glitch’ is. I have a vague understanding of what dubstep is (with some prompting), but to my reckoning this about as remote from traditional R’n’B as the Seychelles Islands are from Morecambe. When I think of R’n’B I think of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and even, god forgive me, the likes of Beyonce Knowles shaking her booty and busting her lungs about lurrve. It’s about enormously virile black men with tongues the texture of leather and tonsils the size of billiard balls. What it certainly isn’t is this; an itchy and scratchy melange of sweet synthetic noises, perplexing breaks and the warm fuzzy whir of electricity. Tracks like, ‘The Melody’ have an almost spongey, elastic quality, the Connecticut born yankee cooking up a hot delicious soup of surprises in the very ambient court of King Arthur. The ‘dance formula’ he confesses to have used on releases prior to Warp and Planet Mu has made way for an almost abstract or post-impressionistic appreciation of sound. It’s not all bonkers, mind, as psychedelic and challenging it is, there’s a vibe that’s not unlike more traditional bands like Japan, and artists like Scott Walker, and tunes like ‘My Gears Are Starting To Tremble’ are also uncommonly pretty in a discordant and woozy Hamilton Leithauser meets Stephen Hawking fashion.
An android pulse and an angel heart. More wistful and engaging clever stuff from those Ninja Tunes people. ‘Eskmo’ is out now.