After three EPs, the London experimental duo Kieran Brunt and Matt Huxley’s debut LP is an ethereally beautiful, impressionistic, distinctively delicate fusion of very pure, high falsetto vocals, and sparse, classically influenced electronica. Opener Boston Blue Period moves from tiny, high pitched piped synth organ (referencing Benjamin Britten's Sea Interludes) into cinematically sweeping orchestral strings, and with a narrative of a character wandering through the city after breakup, inspired by a trip by Brunt to Boston, strolling around galleries and seeing that famous Picasso. “When I was depressed it made me really good at bowling / Slowly down the lane just keep that heavy fucker rolling,” are the strikingly dark, humorous opening lines of the catchy, witty Follow The News, squaring mental health and media habits. And so then this album continues to reward and surprise with its sparse beauty and subtlety, gently offering up gem after gem, from the ticking beats and serene vocals of Oscar’s Song to the whispering crackle of Drunk in Iceland, the beautifully tender, soaring emotions of Whipping Boy, the time-passing epic scale of Annunciation, Sophia’s vivid electronica, the lingering, tender loveliness of November Skies (with Anna B Savage), the dark, foreboding of 100,000 Fireflies (an unusual cover of the Magnetic Fields song written by Stephin Merritt), and finally arriving at closing title track, which is ethereally powerful in sound while also lyrically down-to-earth. Exquisite, bold, delicate, uplifting and innovative. What a debut. Out Groenland Records.
From the cover art for Love Remains
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