“Intention” combines the sort of mindful field-recording exercise you might expect from Cassandra Jenkins and the dystopian new age calm of Oneohtrix Point Never.Įven the “proper” songs are idiosyncratic mood pieces. “The Heart of the Wave,” his starting point for making the record, is a meditative tangle that recalls Vini Reilly’s loveliest work as the Durutti Column. More often, though, the instrumental-leaning tracks offer solace from the turbulent world outside Kele’s home and headphones. “The Patriots,” a brief but potent instrumental, builds layers of guitars into gnashing convulsions that unmistakably communicate this second-generation immigrant’s dread about right-wing nationalism on the march. The racial justice themes of 2019’s cluttered 2042 are more restrained here, but Kele’s rage and sadness are all the more eloquent without overt sloganeering, and even without words. As the world struggles to move past the last year and a half, Kele’s reflections on relationship drama, headline fatigue, and sleeping aids feel refreshingly true-to-life. For the first time, that guitar is heavily treated through loops and his home collection of effects pedals, evidenced in the crystal lattices and churning undercurrents of opener “Message From the Spirit World.” Next to “Smalltown Boy,” the song-based originals are more like sketches, often blending spoken word with Kele’s plaintive moan to create a sense of solitary ambience. Informed by Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Glenn Branca, the instrumentals are thoughtful showcases for the fluid guitar playing Kele more typically reserves for Bloc Party albums. I is audacious, even poetic-a quiet room to the blaring clubs of Kele’s early electro-pop solo albums. On its own introspective terms, The Waves, Pt. Half lyric-based and half instrumental, built out of only guitar, piano, and voice, it’s as low-key and eccentric as Kele has ever sounded. I stands apart, the product of lockdown recording and late-night walks through London as the stay-at-home father of two passed time posting guitar covers on Instagram. Although Kele’s willingness to go for grand gestures has always endeared him, over the years that ambitious approach has seemed to yield diminishing returns.
Perhaps the pandemic-era timing was just right.
0 kommentar(er)
