Graeme Ronald is a musician with a CV that reads like a who’s who of Scottish indie – Multiplies, The Royal We, and Flying Matchstick Men just three of the acts he’s provide guitar and other assistance for.
Note that these are mainly ‘pop’ acts, with singing and choruses and all that stuff. Put Ronald centre stage and things become quite diffferent. For starters, he’s unlikely to say a lot – too busy building intricate soundscapes with a variety of strange instruments and household items.
This presents its problems for both artist and listener. Certainly fans of his previous acts may find songs without vocals (or indeed big singalong choruses) hard going. Remember Remember is/are in fact extremely impressive live, which again sets up the album for a bit of a task in converting those unfamiliar with their oeuvre.
The self-titled debut was atmospheric and understated, and put simply, documented the band’s sound at that time, and did so pretty well.
But what of this effort?
Perhaps best listened to in a darkened room (I think you know what I’m saying), ‘White Castle’ is a trippy affair, its sweeps and swells of sound quite giddy-making.
‘Unclean Powers’ is of course also instrumental, with what sounds like a flute giving it a proggy air, until it all goes a bit post-rock (er, sorry, er, is there a difference?) while what I take to be a glockenspeil (hazy memories of childhood school orchestras) reminds of Aereogramme in their more instrumental passages.
The album’s title track is almost a classical piece, plaintive piano which would fit nicely into the Deutsche Grammophon back catalogue, while ‘One Happier’ is perhaps the most cohesive tune here, all insistent strings, like it’s soundtracking a Poliakoff movie, though the ever-present glock is starting to grate a little.
‘Ocean Potion’ is nice, a bit faster, not pursuing any tune in particular but it’s quite jiggy, although it takes quite a while to get to the nub of the piece, a guitar hook which is kind of Jethro Tull crossed with The Unwinding Hours.
‘John Candy’ is something of an electropop beast – toe-tapping and head-nodding, the kind of thing that could get post rock a good name (though try to blot out any mental image of beards being stroked in time to the tune).
Apologise for using the lazy reviewer’s technique of breaking down the tracks one by one, but each is an individual entity, and given they’re all linked by looped electronics and samples, every different. ‘Hey Zeus’ is probably the best example of this – with a strong beat and fiddles it’s like a modern take on the indigenous music of the Russian Steppes.
Overall, it’s an album that gets stronger as it goes on – and one that you should likewise investigate.
