As time progresses and I have dined at the feast that is downloadable digital music, there comes a time now and again where I step back go to my roots and make the effort to acquire an actual physical copy of music. Sometimes it is on vinyl, sometimes cd.
On these occasions, I am generally anticipating the record for some time before it comes out. More and more the pattern appears to be that I have been very impressed with an artist that I have downloaded, I hear that something new is coming out and I then abstain from consuming any further content by the artist so that I can be surprised when I finally do get a copy of the record.
This last week the scenario played out with the new album by Balam Acab. Since their amazing single last year many people have been in the same position as myself. Nervously awaiting a full length by an artist that hadn’t really proved themselves capable of anything in particular. It is a paralyzing position to be in. The previous music had been so good, but there was precious little of it. Some artists just blow it at this point and the dream dies. Yet he has delivered here.
While this music certainly bears the imprint of the person who released See Birds last year, he has gone beyond that music into something far deeper and much more expressive.
If I for one were hoping to tie the legacy of the 4AD from the 80s to a sound that is relative today this would be a prime choice. Restrained, elegant and slightly tortured this captures that label’s infatuation with Romanticism and updates it with a post-Burial sound palette.
****
