While 2020 album ‘Compendium’ was something of an widescreen epic, the follow-up from Douglas Macintyre is almost the opposite – gone are the guests like Alan Vega and Vic Godard; instead Macintyre wrote ten instrumentals in one day on an acoustic guitar with all strings tuned to one note before being recorded with the band live.
And yet, it’s far from the challenging listen that might be expected. Whether it’s ‘Kone Trips’ searing electric guitar and swirling synths, the Stereolab-style pulsating rhythms on ‘Swiss Witch’, the glam rock Gary Numan of ‘Carrot Gas’, or ‘Ring O’s ’70s TV theme feel, each track is distinctive with pop undertones and its own catchy hooks.
‘The Mole’ and ‘Bobby Molecular’s provide a moody piano driven interlude before it’s all systems go again with ‘Bada Grove’, a meandering motorik nine-minute closer that confirms that sometimes keeping it simple is not so stupid.
This article originally appeared in the Lancashire Post.