Records On Ribs

This is Talk Less, Say More’s most focussed, emotionally literate and complex work to date, putting personal, honest reflection into an ingenuous and eclectic hypermodern setting. Pushing his distinctive vocal to the front and singing on every track for the first time, the record unblinkingly explores love’s sunlit glories as well as the strange chasms opened when it departs.

The Battle of Borodino updates the neon lights of 80s electropop with wide-eyed Italo synths, fuzzy guitar riffs and vocoders. Up close, Far Away combines deft lyricism and folk warmth with relentless thud of the Berlin techno minimalism, in one moment laying an explosion of shuddering breaks beautifully alongside looping guitars. Smeared impressionistic cello in Sensations Spring meld seamlessly with a Timbaland bassline, halting IDM drums and contemplation of the passing of things. Perhaps a hinge of the album, Roots Alive pushes Vangelis’ synthetic choirs over the snap and throb of a broken house beat, thrusting guitar chops over childhood recollection.

The closeness and beautiful restraint of All Dressed Up Like Love reads like a confessional – “I have been thinking about fear and the way it has of showing up around here/All dressed up like love”. Drawing the album to a close, Life In Cold Blood is a thrilling summation, shimmering bells trilling over a tender dub, a gorgeous conclusion to a gorgeous record. The yearning mantra “We’ll put our hoods up and walk in the rain” is perhaps a look to hope, maybe nothing more than a glance to acceptance, the open conclusion to so many unanswered questions.

For fans of Junior Boys, Subtle, The Knife, Timbaland as well as Leonard Cohen, the anarchist pop spirit of Giorgio Moroder. Minimal techno, pound shop electro.

Track List

• 1. The Battle of Borodino (3.33)
• 2. Up Close, Far Away (4.01)
• 3. Sensations Spring (3.05)
• 4. See You In The Morning (3.07)
• 5. A Song About a Dream About a Phonecall (2.19)
• 6. Roots Alive (3.27)
• 7. All Dressed Up Like Love (4.44)
• 8. Someone Else’s Summer (2.58)
• 9. Unfledged (1.12)
• 10. Pillowtalk (5.12)
• 11. Life In Cold Blood (4.16)

Reviews

There's a moment in "Someone Else’s Summer", when a double guitar line spins in, where I became 100% convinced that this was an album to cherish. It's a guitar line that would have been milked for three minutes of TV advert catchiness by any other artist. Jell uses the few seconds' elation to raise the hopeful side of pleasure, and then concludes the song. And so it is throughout the album. Nothing laboured, nothing squandered, nothing outstaying its welcome....a lonely record, and even a little unhappy. It goes nowhere near maudlin though, and the direct liveliness of the music keeps refreshing the hope. In its closing track, "Life In Cold Blood", Go Lucky simply quivers with sensuous anticipation of the next, better moment. Bass and guitar parts are masterfully subtle.

—Whisperin And Hollerin

Far too many would-be songwriters strive for grandeur in tackling the abstract without incorporating the nuances of the quotidian and end up with something overly pretentious and forced. It is a signifier of the immature. The craft of the experienced artisan is to show the cosmos in the bus stop and that is exactly what Go Lucky does...a gorgeous record, detailing the last gasps of a failing relationship with great stoicism and attention to detail. For those who know, it may prove to be one of the slow-burning successes of the year.

—Contact Music

An LP that ambiguously straddles dub, electronica and an abundance of alternative snippets in between...hats should be doffed to a record so understated, sometimes just mantra-esque vocals sitting on a gloomy dub bass drum, that achieves such a haunting atmosphere and moments of poignancy as if from nowhere.

—God Is In The TV

When as much attention to detail is paid as Jell himself clearly paid recording and producing this album you can appreciate it for the beautiful experiment that it is.

—The Line Of Best Fit