album // As Above So Below
Two years on from Oedipus Schmoedipus, As Above So Below adds two further, intriguing, twists to Barry Adamson's palette of sounds.
The first finds him using abrasive effects on the saxes and guitars, providing some tracks such as 'Still I Rise' and 'The Monkey Speaks His Mind' with an aggression that we're not used to hearing from this master of aural emotion. The twist gives the track a concise, straight-ahead atmosphere, delivering a short, sharp sonic punch to the senses. Take the opener 'Can't Get Loose' which on some bizarre level reminds me of Andy Williams' 'Music To Watch Girls By', commencing with some loud, boisterous guitars before moving into a rich easy-listening array of vibes and beats.
The second twist is perhaps the most surprising. After all, as the years go by we have become used to Adamson reaching out into new musical areas in order to add greater depth to his textural sound design. However, the latest exploration finds Adamson actually singing on the majority of the tracks on As Above So Below, rather than using spoken word monologues or employing the skills of vocal collaborators.
Presented with the concept of Adamson as singer-songwriter, you may be forgiven for expecting the worst; I know I was - the first track I'd heard was 'Jazz Devil' on a Vox magazine promo CD, and I expected the whole album to be filled with variations on 'Jazz Devil' - kitsch and humorous story-telling. As a first foray into the genre, Adamson proves himself to be a talented singer, his voice capable of soaring impressively with a controlled emotion (as on the emphatic 'Come Hell Or High Water') or dropping down to a warm and confiding whisper. His time spent with Nick Cave obviously paid dividends.
The shift toward less instrumental sound design is borne out by the number of vocal tracks, which make up the majority of the album. However, the move toward the singer-songwriter genre has not prompted a move away from the luscious sounds Adamson is renowned for. We still get the jazz, the vibes, the perfect counterpoint string arrangements, the cunning deployment of stoned hip-hop beats, and we still get the wandering basslines and electronic experiments (check out the elongated effects on the intro to 'Jesus Wept'). His cover of Suicide's 'Girl' is outstanding, more akin to his remix work with its intricate synth clusters and cracked metronomic drum machine rhythm, pushing his sound design into glitsch-electronica territory.
An interesting and impressive move forward, As Above So Below has one major problem - its completeness and tightness actually casts a long shadow over its predecessor, Oedipus Schmoedipus. That's not to take away the earlier album's achievements, however that album now sounds somewhat ramshackle and inconsistent when heard immediately before this.
single // What It Means
'What It Means' is a perfect Barry Adamson track, and certainly one of the most complete of his tracks to have been released in the single format. It's quite a thrilling ride, a suite of electronically-enhanced high-speed verses over which Adamson delivers a harsh and harmonious vocal, backed by springy synth noises and a bold, stalking bassline. The vibe is cast in a jazz mould, and on the chorus the track opens out into a horn and organ groove blessed by a great drum section from x, with some ebulliant, Andy Williams crooning by Barry.
Skylab exploit the jazzy vibe and create a loose arrangement across their two mixes. They break the track apart to create what could pass as a live improv jam, introducing Adamson's vocal on their second, amusingly-titled 'Skylab A Smokin' Japanese We're Chicken in Moss Side' mix. Renegade SoundWave survivor Danny Briottet returns to the fold to team up with stalwart Mute producer Paul 'PK' Kendall on his 'Subsonic Legacy Master' mix. A jazzy two-step variant, Briottet adds some dub echoes and a killer sub-bassline to create a superb electro-dub counterweight to the bebop sounds elsewhere on the disc.