The biological imperative has kicked in and a 7lb 20z bundle of joy made his presence felt on 6th October, when waters were broken almost five weeks before his due date on 8th November. Since then, it's been hospital stays, dazed days and nights at home and large amounts of parental panic. They have needs, these little critters, and these needs do not include their Dad maintaining blogs of dubious worth.
However, I will try and sneak out a couple more as the year peters out over the next couple of months. If I can get to 365 it will be an achievement, but the Babber is king - so don't be surprised if there are no more than a handful, if that. And what I do will lack depth and insight to an even greater degree than before B Day.
I was listening to this album in those tricky times while my wife was stuck in hospital waiting for Babber to emerge, and it is pretty classy. The lead track in particular, "Ye Ye", is full of swollen, acid menace and low-grade shuffling genius. It has spilled out of some garden shed at the back of dance culture. Dan Snaith is responsible, who has also put together some great tunes as Caribou (and before that Manitoba, before Dick Manitoba became such a ..well, dick about it). It's fantastic and the peak of the album by some distance.
"Light" goes for a walk in the park, ping pong balls of sound bouncing from here to there. Babber has his usual thoughtful face on, not sure what to make of the arpeggios reaching upwards and outwards. "Pairs" is an exercise in artificial congas and cowbells, a motherboard carnival template. There are some satisfying arcade shoot 'em up crunches on "Springs", some more vintage junkyard legacy reward. The sounds get a bit less scratchy and fill out on the closer, "Long". I read the word "granular" in another review and think how clever it is.
And Daphne was my mother's name, so...
Rating: Granular out of Shed
No comments:
Post a Comment