Diagrams - Diagrams EP (10/08/2011)
Find a magical tree-lined footpath to meander down or a comfortable couch to settle in. If you can’t find either however, this delivery of tunes will make you feel like you’re there nonetheless.
Diagrams is the new project from Sam Genders, a London based pioneer of the hybrid genre of ‘folktronica’. This self-titled debut EP released in July demands attention from the get go.
Opening track Night All Night sounds like the love child of a Kings of Convenience and Josh Pyke track and I’m in heaven. Beautiful harmonies and an electronic sounding backing beat take you into track number two, allowing the listener to fall in to a fast paced melody with a scattering of trumpets.
Hill then makes the statement “There is no way to be yourself if you don’t go there”, with big bass sounds and a tapping high hat. A chorus of female voices keep the beat and blend magically with Gender’s calming vocals and by this point my glass is nearing empty. It’s not this fact that is disappointing however, it’s the fact that I know I’m about to listen to the second last track and I’m wishing it would never end. Woking welcomes a metronome which keeps time without grating, actually fitting perfectly under the brass and haunting voices that dance playfully on arpeggios.
Finger picking strings and a tender violin allows Icebreakers to round off this surprising yet familiar EP, and acts as a perfect closing curtain on a collection of songs that are sitting on repeat on this reviewer’s CD player. This last song, more acoustic than the last, has lyrics that create colourful imagery of the end of a memorable evening, “All the night there were TV lights, playing abstract patterns on your eyes”.
Even if you’re not totally chilled out after the five tracks, don’t turn off too early or you’ll miss out on a few minutes of gentle ‘boat floating’ treats to tip you over. Or you could just put it on again…
‘Diagrams’ is out now on the Full Time Hobby label and we can only hope that there is a full length album not too far away.
Andrea Davies
Diagrams is the new project from Sam Genders, a London based pioneer of the hybrid genre of ‘folktronica’. This self-titled debut EP released in July demands attention from the get go.
Opening track Night All Night sounds like the love child of a Kings of Convenience and Josh Pyke track and I’m in heaven. Beautiful harmonies and an electronic sounding backing beat take you into track number two, allowing the listener to fall in to a fast paced melody with a scattering of trumpets.
Hill then makes the statement “There is no way to be yourself if you don’t go there”, with big bass sounds and a tapping high hat. A chorus of female voices keep the beat and blend magically with Gender’s calming vocals and by this point my glass is nearing empty. It’s not this fact that is disappointing however, it’s the fact that I know I’m about to listen to the second last track and I’m wishing it would never end. Woking welcomes a metronome which keeps time without grating, actually fitting perfectly under the brass and haunting voices that dance playfully on arpeggios.
Finger picking strings and a tender violin allows Icebreakers to round off this surprising yet familiar EP, and acts as a perfect closing curtain on a collection of songs that are sitting on repeat on this reviewer’s CD player. This last song, more acoustic than the last, has lyrics that create colourful imagery of the end of a memorable evening, “All the night there were TV lights, playing abstract patterns on your eyes”.
Even if you’re not totally chilled out after the five tracks, don’t turn off too early or you’ll miss out on a few minutes of gentle ‘boat floating’ treats to tip you over. Or you could just put it on again…
‘Diagrams’ is out now on the Full Time Hobby label and we can only hope that there is a full length album not too far away.
Andrea Davies