Colourful and playful third album succeeds in departing from their gold selling template
Those expecting Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen to retread the idyllic pastures of their first two albums will be shocked as the kings of Day-Glo downtempo up the BPMs. With each track built around an unlikely sample – from Masters Of Reality to Flanders & Swann – the results are as varied as the sources. Opener “‘88 aka Come Down On Me" shoots for Orbital’s crown, and the album’s closing spoken word cameo from William Shatner is shattered by a decidedly “rawk” climax. In between, familiar acoustic guitars and pastoral meanderings abound, but the tone is less whimsical, occasionally ecstatic, and at times surprisingly reminiscent of big beat.
