When I was a kid, one of my favourite activities was doing dot-to-dot pictures. Not creating them – I don’t think the average six year old can do that – but I loved seeing how these seemingly random dots would make something when it all came together.
I mention that because on paper this album might sound like something that should never get further than the drawing board. The three most obvious things I hear running through this album is traditional sounding Eastern European music, electronica and sludge rock. Sounds like chocolate and salmon mousse, topped off with broccoli? Well, on paper, yes BUT somehow James Baker is a visionary who can actually see a link between all these different things and make them work, quite often in the same song.
It may sound like two or three different bands and songs coming together in the song – but it’s the link and the way it comes off so smoothly, like Malcolm McLaren seeing a link between Hip-Hop and Opera or whatever, and working over the course of an album. There is no obvious single here – but that absolutely doesn’t matter. This is an album that is very much the sum of its parts, that will reward and still very intrigue with every listen.
