**Having surreptitiously infected the airwaves with their previous album '_KY_', Lemon Jelly return with an album that is at once more advanced than their debut, while retaining all that was good about it.**
Namely the mischievous sense of humour and uniquely British playfulness which the band expertly balance as they pigeon step along the thin line of novelty and inventiveness. It's none more apparent than in the epic '_Nice Weather For Ducks' which contains the frankly ridiculous sample "all the ducks are swimming in the water_". Fortunately its crossed with a beautiful 'Littlest Hobo-esque' strings and acoustic combination that builds to a brass-ridden finish. Its great.
Yet alongside the elements of mirth lie tracks of utter sublime creation. Single 'Spacewalk' is a sumptuously crafted 8-minute collage of tinkling piano and snaking bass line built around the sample of yes, an astronaut embarking on a spacewalk. "Its beautiful" confides said voyager, and its arguable that there has never been such an apt sound bite.
Things on their sophomore album have taken on a more organic feel too; '_Ramblin' Man' feels like an update of Harry Nielson's 'Everybody's Talkin_g' as a warm voice lists a diverse range of destinations from The Cayman Islands to Kentish Town.
Diversity has been added to the duo's armoury: sample-heavy melancholia mixing with straightforward pop songs like '?Ducks' and more eclectic sounds, like the scattershot pattering and jazzy inflections of 'Road to Patagonia', which superbly, ends with a Russian choir belting away. '_Experiment Number Six_' makes use of the languid double bass and bullet-like snare so treasured by acts like Cinematic Orchestra and Reprazent.
It's the beautifully layered textures that make this album, coupled with a sense of wonder and organic creation that embeds itself deep into your subconscious. Its uplifting, mood altering stuff and a triumphant return.
All hail, the new kings of electronica.
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9Gareth Dobson's Score