Velvet Grooves

Its taken me a while to get down to review this, because it's one of those albums that takes a lot to get into. On initial listen, I could feel the potential. It's one of those albums you can feel something straight away, but it has so much breadth in volume of layers and texture that you feel the need to give it all you got.

So SJ Esau - finally we're here! This new album is out on Anticon (Clouddead etc) and it feels abnormal for them to be his label home... but at the same time it's kinda correct. There's no rapping of any kind on there, but the fullness of the album is extroardinary! Some bands start off composing with simple melodies as bare bones, and build from that - and I think this is what SJ's done, but with samples instead. And lovely samples they are... fractured guitar parts with grizzled other sounds, some found some not... it's when you listen further and delve in that you realise how important these are. Lending hands from psychedelia, electronica and radiohphonic workshop style sounds - it's an amazing skill. But it's not just the sounds that are inventive - it's also the surreal writing style contained within. So I guess this is another well done fulfillment on the Anticon criteria...