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...according to our Mike on Wed 02 Nov, 2011.
The press release for this record describes it as Lynchian, which I think is a pretty good adjective for it. This ex-Slowdive man crafts smoky, semi-ambient soundscapes with dubby repetitive bass and jazzy and sparse drums and guitar. In places it's very spacious and minimal, in others it's dense and blurred, with what sounds like tape hiss and field recordings filling in the gaps. This is pretty varied stuff but always at quite a meditative pace. It all kind of has a sense of yearning about it, and there's a krautgaze song in the middle with vocals that does recall his former band, but on the most part this is slow-burning and fairly minimal instrumental stuff delivered with a crackling intensity and focus and a clear reverence for tone. There's a big shoegazey finale that's totally sucked me in, too. Very impressive.
Cambridge-based Simon Scott might still be best known for his tenure as the backbone of influential shoegazers Slowdive, but after his debut solo effort 'Navigare' in 2009, he showed that there was far more to his oeuvre than people might have thought. With an ease and fluidity that eschews the usual trappings of the genre, he injected Slowdive's free-flowing bliss into the kind of blackened soundscapes the Miasmah label has made its calling card and gave the sound a rich, multi-layered quality that was effortlessly enticing. 'Bunny' is Scott's sophomore long player, and sees the multi-instrumentalist growing in confidence as he takes on a plethora of themes and ideas and distills them into a coherent, well-defined narrative.
The overall premise of the record is apparent from the very beginning, and might surprise some with its inspired take on the blackened jazz and smokey Americana heard in 'Paris, Texas' or 'Mulholland Dr.'. It would do Scott a disservice to simply label the music as 'Lynchian' however, his success is to treat the layers of instrumentation (drums, guitars, cello, synthesizers) with a masterful fluidity, allowing the influences to melt into a delicate and delectable whole. There is an underlying surreal seam however, which erupts through ever part of 'Bunny', beginning with its very odd title. The juxtaposition of the pitch-black humour gives an unnerving mood to the tracks which only emphasizes the blues-flecked dread of the record itself. Occasionally Scott acknowledges his shoegazing past, nudging the sound towards the blurred haze of his former band, but even these moments are cavernous enough for us to imagine them oozing from a Midwestern jukebox in an abandoned suburban diner. 'Bunny' is an ambitious and daring journey for an artist who refuses to stay still; and it might just be the best road trip you've never taken…
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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