It’s hard to believe that over two years have passed since Conquering Animal Sound’s debut album was released.
The release of Kammerspiel was very much CAS’s mark as auteurs in the vanguard of Scottish experimental electronic music.
Careful deliberation has been at the fore whilst creating this follow-up, in the hope that it could surpass the magnificence of their first record.
Now we have On Floating Bodies, a second record that feels more like an incredible fearless journey through the cosmos, rather than an unconsidered reaction to a critically acclaimed debut.
With the music workload split evenly between the duo, the accomplished sounds developed over the two years are not only tangible but breathtaking.
Anneke Kampman’s vocals spiral and intertwine the sharp thuds of visceral thumps and saturated bass that adulate the 11 tracks.
James Scott filled the two year gap between albums writing for On Floating Bodies and pursuing his now defunct solo side-project Japanese War Effort.
To get us off on the right tangent, opening track ‘Ultimate Heat Death of the Universe’ is quite succinct and a gentle taste of the electronica voyage to come.
‘The Future Does Not Require’, is quite, er, well futuristic – and also the first single from the album. The range of textures and foreign soundscapes used on this track alone is all you need to know about this album’s beautiful range and sporadic switches.
If you were forced to compare this record to something, you’d be forgiven it was crossover between Bjork’s quirky nature and passion, whilst stripping back the brashness of Crystal Castles, only to be replaced with an undulating pulse.
Personally, there’s a transcendental beauty to ‘Mimese’; gentle in delivery but fearsome in portions.
The 6-minute long ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ escalates in a hazy plethora of blips, bleeps and layered vocals, finally settling on Kampman repeating “I will turn my back on you”.
Kampman’s lyrics come into their own on this record, assisted by the astral landscape the music does well to convey.
Gone is the innocence of ornate pop sounds that adorned Kammerspiel – by no means a negative progression but a natural one.
This is a fresh horizon for CAS about growing up and more importantly, this is how to equal, if not better, a fantastic debut.
