Slugabed - Inherit The Earth

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  • Released when he was in his early 20s, Slugabed's debut album, Time Team, felt like a window into Greg Feldwick's teenage mind. There were track titles like "Sex," "Travel Sweets" and "Unicorn Suplex." There were 8-bit neon melodies that suggested sleepless nights staring at video game screens. And the whole thing was as cluttered and messy as an adolescent's bedroom, with rhythms strewn around and basslines covered in a kind of gloop that stuck to the speakers. Feldwick's second album, Inherit The Earth, opens the curtains and lets a bit of air in. "Stupid Earth" floats in on wafts of saxophone and pillowy synth pads. The reflective tones of "Virtuous Circle" suggest a newfound sophistication. Whereas Time Team squidged up its G-funk basslines like plasticine, the music on, say, "Gold," a collaboration with Hairy Hands and Peter Lyon, is featherlight R&B with a fluttering vocal. But old habits die hard. Feldwick can't resist fidgeting with that track's rhythm, or chucking some silly noises behind "A Thousand Tiny Hands"'s delicate piano line. Like Daedelus, who remixed "Sex" in 2012, he stuffs ideas into any space he can find. But for the most part, the album's morphing sounds keep you guessing without getting in the way of the groove—check, for example, the headnodding "Infinite Wave." Feldwick stares into the abyss on "Earth Is Gone Sorry," one of several songs that show him at his most sincere. A meditation on mortality featuring vocalist Lum ("Please don't box up and bury me"), it's one of Feldwick's most musically accomplished tracks. Gunshots can be heard on "Levitating Above My Own Body," emphasising the noirish tint of its cinematic jazz. Feldwick is still capable of being funny—"Perfect Earth," for example, sounds like a jokey soundtrack to the rapture—but he's embraced maturity surprisingly well.
  • Tracklist
      01. The Right Person To Talk To 02. Stupid Earth 03. Infinite Wave 04. Levitating Above My Own Useless Body 05. Gold feat. Hairy Hands & Peter Lyon 06. Very Serious Puzzle 07. Time 2 Let It Go 08. A Thousand Tiny Hands 09. Perfect Earth 10. Feeding Time 11. Virtuous Circle 12. Earth Is Gone Sorry feat. Lum
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