 |
| I promise to love you soon |
Tell me something is “a bit like Boards Of Canada” and I’m all over it like Lisa Scott-Lee on the famephone to appear on a(ny) new celebrity reality talent show. Sadly, I’m gradually coming round to accepting that Boards won’t be making anything new for quite a while. No remixes, no EPs past the singular issue that came shortly after The Campfire Headphase, and I read a most disturbing throwaway comment mentioning that one half of BoC had moved to Australia. Admittedly that last point came from a rather sourceless claim on LiveJournal and may have well stated that one half of the duo had now become the moon, but still, I feel the loss. Keeping up a production duo in different hemispheres can't be easy.
Luckily, I’ve had a few artists attempt to step into the void that is my BoC-less blackened heart, thereby rescuing you all from a potential piece Boards Of Canada emo poetry. On one hand I've discovered Luke Abbott, whose Holkham Drones I have moved to its own special hard drive in my PC which is powered by champagne, love and kittens. On the other we have a couple of albums from Lone, which at the moment is a neglected yet well meaning child, waving and pleading desperate from the sidelines for my attention and approval.
My Lone acquisitions are currently sitting in my “to listen to soon” pile, and we are talking my definition of “soon” here. A brief flick through 2009’s Ecstasy Friends paints a cheery, happy sunshine and birds vibe. The kind of wonky downtempo that you’d expect from Siriusmo and Dorian Concept, my synths are breaking and my compressor sidechain is dominating. Nice, but something I just haven’t attached myself to yet, perhaps needing an actual summer to listen to this in before I can label with something a little stronger than ... nice. Nobody likes nice. Nice is a biscuit.
WAIT! This is where the big however comes in and the place I want to focus your ears attention. I’ve been repeatedly diving to a track on the more recent Emerald Fantasy Tracks LP. Downtempo has been dispatched in favour of the mighty 909, but amongst the hard edged hihats and Chicago rhythms the uplifting vibe from Ecstasy Friends is retained.
Now go. Go click on the Youtube video I’ve given you, and I'll tell you why. Ultramarine has that grinding, driving house music vibe that Daft Punk gave to I:Cube’s Disco Cubism all those years back. All discordant short disco stabs and nasty classic house percussion. The big key moment here, which has my finger repeatedly mashing at the “REWIND” icon on my iPhone screen, is halfway through when the track just dissolves around your ears. Ever seen the Lockets advert where a piece of CGI wonder demonstrates how the inside is throat soothing goo when it cracks open? Like that. In both ears. AT THE SAME TIME. All smiles as the twinkles unfold and the 4/4 is dropped in favour of a broken beat to take you home. A pure “yeah, everything is going to be alright” moment that just hits you in the chest.
So looking out the window, I see a glorious beam of sunshine has just broken through the clouds. I’m about to embark on my 1 hour lunchtime stompathon so perhaps this a good moment to pay some attention to that well meaning child. I think I just might do that, and I think you should too.
