The first few moments of 'You Hold the Water', the opening track on 'Love Remains' features slowed-down backwards speech and reminds me of 'Pornography' by The Cure. One of their darker, more experimental tracks, off one of their darkest albums, it's a song that really hits me every time. Then everything changes dramatically, and comparisons not only to The Cure, but to anything else, immediately evaporate.
Sparse beats and even sparser instrumentation provide the backdrop to Tom Krell's soulful falsetto vocal, which by turns croons and soars, and is occasionally subject to manifold layering to produce breathtaking choral harmonies. The guy's definitely onto something with this lo-fi minimal soul, especially when he incorporates techno / industrial elements, as on 'Walking This Dumb'. Whether the zero-budget, home-recorded approach to the production is born of a desire to innovate or simply out of necessity is something I'm not going to speculate over, but there are times when the recording quality does really spoil some decent material. The microphone distortion on some of the vocals, particularly on 'You Won't Need Me Where I'm Goin'' and 'Decisions' (but also on a number of other tracks), plus the general fizz and crackle on 'My Body' and elsewhere really does detract from the listening experience.
|
Consisting of tracks which initially emerged in the form of online E.Ps, 'Love Remains' also suffers from being something of a hotchpotch, the tracks of varying quality, both musically and in terms of the standard of the sound. Live tracks are cobbled into the middle of the set, and overall, it doesn't flow like an album. However, as the compilation it is, it works just fine, and is at the very least an interesting and comprehensive introduction to the works of an artist who is definitely treading a different path.
How To Dress Well On MySpace
|
