pedro
following on from last years excellent collaboration with kathyrn williams 'demons in cases', my fave single last year in case you're interested, comes james rutledge aka pedro debut album.
which is, to put it in its litle pidgeon hole - 9 tracks of beautifully organic electronica, but, that is far far too simplistic for an album full of sonic twists and turns such as this.
from the opening melodic (me - a corny pun ? never) piano track, sounding as if philip glass needs showing how to score his next film soundtrack, to its dj shadow styled 'fear and resilience', with its downtempo beats, warm bass and depth in the instrumentation recalls josh davis's previous epics but adds a warmth and connection that is often missing with shadows stuff. there are splatterings of jazz breaks ('123') added to spice things up, at first these jar against the smooth flow, but the disorientation settles after a couple of listens and these spiky interludes are a welcome nuance to james sonic arsenal.
john zorn meets brian eno at a wu tang house party.
there are more of the midi constructed clicks/bleeps built around string sections as per previous releases 'thesepixelsweaveaperson', but this is not a one trick pony release, james has a lot more up his laptop sleeves. my personal fave 'thewaterranthiswaybackandforth' with its minimal plucked melody sounding like a random/improvised track but slowly the strands of the tune are revealed in all its heart warming splendour.
true ambient bliss.
i have always loved albums that have a proper opening/closing section. blame the old progster in me, but i feel the artist is setting the scene, making an album feel like a complete whole. and, this is no exception to the rule. this is a album to be taken as a whole. it is short in comparison to most electrconica releases of today (40 minutes) but give me quality anyday over quantity.
recently my immediate family was extended by one nappy filling, night time disturbing gorgeous addition. subsequently, i have had a urgent need to have sounds/melodies to calm frayed nerves and shredded tempers, needless to say this album has been within reachin distance ever since i received it - and has been my chosen soundtrack to the perpetual routine of kitchen tasks that a new addition creates..
and on that score pedro is going to be hitting my top 10 list once more.
superb.