There is no two ways about it, this is a simply stunning piece of music, sounding fresh and juicy new, while at the same time evoking numerous ghostie playmates from the past. Mixing droopy-sleepy country sounds with churning drum machine loops a la Beck, and serving them up (comfortably!) beside small symphonies in glockenspiel E minor, seasoning the whole course with seemingly random voice samples and frankly bizarre, untraceable sounds makes for a palatial sound buffet where you can't quite believe you're luck that you're really feasting on it.
Darker moods evoke the broodiness of Boards of Canada, like on 'Closed Shoulders', where tuba-emulated noise hops around like a bunch of drunken, amorous elephants (remember that sequence in ‘Dumbo‘?). ‘Newly Weds‘'s playful, dark charm weirdness moves closer towards Goldfrapp country. Then rough, sand filled drum boxes come on and give you a visa to DJ Shadow doing an underwater set, while getting high on sea weed with the mermaids. Blurred voice samples, like on ‘Popsicle‘ add a ghostly quality (again, slightly evocative of Boards of Canada's 'Geogaddi'), whereas playful electronica silliness seemingly takes over on ‘Me: the new you’. Crackly vinyl sounds on laid-back guitar and stylophone close this album off with a warm smile and handshake, on the beautiful, beautiful ‘Last Walk Around Mirror Lake’.
This album doesn't ever tire you, instead whenever you find your way around one song, you're thrown into the next, naked and blinking with confusion. But inside all the 13 tracks lies an undercurrent that connects them, a collective soul that makes sure this isn't just a jumble sale mix-packet of the good, the bad and the frankly bizarre. No, ‘Seed to Sun’ does come across as a unified effort, a dark sunshine storyline to brighten up your mood anytime.
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8Liane Cameron's Score