Staff Reviews

Amateur Best - The Gleaners

Review by Kellan Miller

Gloomy musings reinforced by merry melodies not only weirdly capture the human experience by compounding the extremes of emotion»

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The second album from Amateur Best, his first for Brille. Flory has come a long way since his beginnings making major label pop music as Primary 1. Following the release of 'No Thrills' and tours of Europe playing drums with Chilly Gonzales and the Kaiser Quartett, Flory made a move from the bustle of London to his current home in Birmingham in order to hone his songwriting and production talents, perfecting a melodic, crystal clear style of vocal pop. It's a style that draws on the electronica of Cassius's Au Reve, the soundtrack work of Michael Nyman, the intricate layering of The Avalanches, and the experimental pop of David Sylvian and Ryuchi Sakamoto while sounding like no one else but Amateur Best. The result of three years writing and recording, the 10 tracks that make up 'The Gleaners' straddle the fine line between outright ecstasy and muted melancholy. Initially envisioned as a concept album about a charity shop-bought doll's house, it mutated into a full-on dance record. Where 'No Thrills' drew its influences from the warm, pastoral techno of artists like James Holden and his Border Community label, 'The Gleaners' feels like more of a step into the unknown. Produced and mixed entirely by Flory, the album uses a huge array of instrumentation and hardware to arrive at its unique and varied sound. Flory would buy old drum machines and synthesizers, make a song, and then sell it to buy the next piece of kit.
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