2014 saw Astronauts – Dan Carney’s post Dark Captain musical vehicle – emerge with ‘Hollow Ponds’, one of the year’s most compelling album. Its beautifully understated dark folk pop marked a clear continuation of Dark Captain’s trajectory, layered acoustic arrangements augmented with delicate electronic currents, all as a backdrop to Carney’s plaintive, reflective harmonies.
The prospect of a second album later in 2016 is an exciting one, especially on the strength of lead single, ‘Civil Engineer’. It doesn’t deviate too far from the stylistic template of ‘Skydive’, but that’s a positive (1,000,000 plays on Spotify suggests he’s onto something). As with all of Carney’s best work, it builds around a simple repetition with layers building up over it, the soft melody gently pulling on emotive chords.
|
The brace of remixes , courtesy of Bit Cloudy and Kieran Mahon, which are danced-up and motorikally hypnotic respectively, illustrate the ways in which Carney’s compositions have a fluid adaptability and succeed whatever the mode of reinterpretation. If the rest of ‘End Codes’ is half as good, it’s already secured its place as one of the albums of the year.
Astronauts Online
|