It’s about time. And also space. And also loss. Loss that is the result of either of those things.
The End (Has To Start Somewhere) is about hip-hop as the apex of evolution and the profound absurdity of eternal recurrence (maybe). Kicking Logic considers parallel dimensions and ponders the mystery Schrödinger’s cat over a popping g-funk whistle slice up. Time Flies dwells on life’s glorious contingency and the death of snowmen. The Quarterbeats plays the idea of time signatures as being the signatures of time qua time.
Yet it is not all speculative metaphysical hi-jinks. St’s Patrick’s Well features the most sublimely melancholic vocoder chorus since Laurie Anderson’s avant-hit ‘O Superman’. Oh No is a rapped lament for childhood trees and opportunities missed. Things end with a dark turn: Arctic Fox is a beatless midnight stalk, that recalls the collaboration between Kode9 and Space Ape in its sinister ambiguity – “I never knew a moral to keep me warm at night”, spits our anti-hero, while the colossal darkness and icy ambience whips around him.
In short, this simply is brilliant.
Artwork designed by Wayne Pashley.
Track List
- 1. The End (Has To Start Somewhere) (2.37)
- 2. Kicking Logic (2.58)
- 3. Time Flies (2.44)
- 4. St Patrick’s Well (3.08)
- 5. The Quarterbeats (0.50)
- 6. Oh No (3.10)
- 7. Arctic Fox (2.59)
