The Boats - Words Are Something Else

No I've not been over-familiar with material by Lancashire's The Boats over the years, largely because much of their oeuvre is of a delicate disposition and gets lost amongst all the shouting, crying, gurgling, screaming and thumping that goes on within these 4 shaky walls. But I'll be the first to admit I wasn't expecting their new CD 'Words are Something Else' to (fully) open with one of the finest tripped-out dubby techno tracks I've heard this year! Followed by 'Keep off the Boats' which contains a strange insectoid pulse and musique concrete percussion with a flexible bassline that'd do the likes of B12 proud. A mutated technoid landscape is the terrrain for much of this odd record, ranging from the woozy T4 with it's fucked vocoderish vocal & warped synth stabs, the beats all gentle & playful to 'We Sometimes Forget' and it's superb, disembodied, yearning vocal, alien glitch & motorik rhythm. Lovin' those warm keys too. This is simply a really inventive downtempo electronic album with many a hearty nod to the various waves of pioneering, influential spirits without actually really emulating any of them. Home Normal seem to be getting the very best out of their roster of guest artists if these fascinating 10 tracks of brilliantly oddball future techno & outsider electronic pop are owt to go by. Utterly enchanting!