★★★☆☆
“Beat Dis,” “Megablast,” “Bug Powder Dust” – Bomb the Bass’ finest moments now seem a lifetime ago, long substituted for mild electronica and water-treading beats in an unofficial mellowing with old age. Producer Tim Simenon and vocalist Paul Conboy are now set on an enigmatic, dub-laden, Balearics-targeting agenda, emerging through misty panoramas with heads in the clouds and dancing feet directed by a sometime indie-fied swagger. Except that it’s not particularly a unique attempt at a headswim, and only enigmatic if you make that your criteria for when lyrics are made up of wails, sighs and fogged wisdom.
Decent as a late in the day supplement, you may throw this on because you’re uneasy with silence; you don’t feel the need to interact with it because it’s just there, paddling along, offering a kind of detached, no frills companionship. Despite “All Alone” wanting to rebel, it means no harm, as “Just This Universe?” reflects while perched on a seawall and Conboy works in an airy-to-mumbling vocal with an Ian Brown-like dose of premium precociousness. Riding post-surf vapour on “Time Falls Apart” looks to hold down this summer’s after parties when joined by a babble of horn players, and “Where Better,” a mix of sub-psych drifting and Jim Noir all-is-rosy lyricism, has a steadying whimsy about it, to make you inch towards the pair just a little closer. Proficient, without great innovation.
File under: Seelenluft, Idjut Boys, Phantogram