Staff Reviews

Diagrams - Chromatics

Review by Will Moss

It is Sam Genders’ past, not the present or the future, that gets the better of him.»

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When songwriter and producer Sam Genders last donned his Diagrams hat, captive listeners found themselves truly stunned by the Streatham Hill artist's imaginative and inventive arrangements that made up 2012's debut album 'Black Light'. Having now upped sticks from his London lodgings and settled in Sheffield with a new lease of life and wife, fresh pastures and friendships are what form the heart of Diagrams' brand new album Chromatics. "Relationships are a constant thread. In all their frustrating, exciting, mundane, beautiful, wonderful, sexy, scary glory," reveals Genders of the album's themes. "And there's lots of hope in the songs. They shouldn't be taken too literally mind you... in my head Chromatics is life in Technicolour; with all its ups and downs." Whilst Black Light fizzed with electronic effects, synth-bass, programmed beats and low-key funk grooves that brought about comparisons to the leftfield pop of Arthur Russell, Metronomy, Steve Mason and Hot Chip, it's without doubt that Genders' next offering falls closer to home comforts and marks the next step in Genders' renaissance. Take lead track 'Phantom Power'; it's the track which truly sums up what it's like to find yourself forever reassessing. "It's about feeling like you're losing a grip on your sanity at one moment, then feeling inspired and up for anything the next. Or frustration with yourself yet believing that it's possible to sort yourself out," explains Genders. For fans of: Arthur Russel, Tunng, Wave Machines, Akron / Family.
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