Round up featuring Bent, Dollboy and Fabriclive 17 by Aim

Bent ‘Ariels’ (Open)

It’s rare that you listen to an album first time and find that every single tune has such beauty it renders you speechless. Bent, aka Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills, have managed to achieve this with their dreamy third album ‘Ariels’. If you’re a diehard fan you’ll know the boys from their previous offerings ‘Programmed to Love and ‘The Everlasting Blink’ – both electronic gems worthy of recognition. But there are predictions the new album will propel the Nottingham-based duo to superstardom, and you can guarantee every car manufacturer will be falling over themselves to use one of the ethereal ditties on their adverts. Not ideal, but part and parcel of modern day corporatism.

‘Ariels’ is a departure from Bent’s previous bleep and boing-based antics and seduces you with real instruments and immaculate arrangements. The fabulous French horn is featured throughout, as is the harp, even if the resonance has been slightly tampered with to create an electronic edge. However, it’s the vocals that take this album into another dimension. With the mellifluous tones of Sian Evans from Kosheen, Rachel from Weekend Players and long-time collaborator Kathy Heath, it’s hard to find fault with any tune. The familiarity of sound (shades of Zero 7 and Massive Attack) could be a drawback for some purists but the execution of every single note and lyric is enough to make you want to keep it on loop for the weekend. One of the best albums of the year.

words: Rachel Bristowe

Dollboy ‘Plans For a Modern City’ (Different Drummer)

Unplug your mind and put your ass on recharge. Dollboy‘s ‘Plans For a Modern City’ is quite simply a breathtakingly narcotic work of beauty. Revealing itself like some heavily scented flower it undulates from mood to mood, wafting waves of calm in its path. I haven’t found a more effective serum for modern living. Each track has been suffused with a warm, fluid style that gently floats like a smiley-face balloon above all the rectilinear chaos it rightly shuns. Take the hypnotic slowness of ‘Monks and Bells’ or the lonely ‘Cymbaline and Celeste’, or the haunted ‘Aisle 9’ track with deep spacey synths that tumble like a slo mo wave, this music just ‘is’, without attitude, without a pause and without the baggage of our times. Feeling simultaneously tranquilized and sunburnt, I realised with a gentle jolt that I was only half way through the album. Dollboy is best represented by their childlike innocence on the last track, ‘Splash’, which is an underwater paradise of a track. Whatever city they’re building, I wanna go there bringing a beanbag and some shades.

words: Rufus Sanders

Various ‘Fabriclive17 compiled by Aim’ (Fabric)

What can you say about compilation CD’s? Whether the person who makes it is an artist, an aficionado or a crashing bore, really there is only one of two outcomes – good or bad. The idea is to bring together a number of rarely heard, or heard of, tunes, throw in a couple of well respected tracks to hold it together and hope for congruity. Get it wrong and the effect is instantly forgettable. Get it right and you will inspire your listener to trot off to their nearest independent record shop and buy something they might not have otherwise had the guts to buy.

So hats off to Aim, the man who brought you ‘Cold Water Music’ and who has encouraged me to write in the first person and tell you that I intend to leg it to my local record shop and look for something by Boards of Canada, James Yorkston, Scott Lark, and Bloik. Mission well and truly accomplished.

This album features contemporary British hip-hop, South American funk, 60’s West Coast pop and electronica and is basically a good compilation. It ticks boxes on the range, obscurity and length tests and, because it is produced and distributed by the always good/always-get-lost-in-it-at-least-once London club, Fabric, it can be obtained by mail order for the very reasonable price of £6. Check out their website www.fabriclondon.com.

words: Robin Harris

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