Ed Dowie s The Obvious I is nothing if not impeccably tasteful, finds Marc Burrows
If you’re looking for an excuse to buy that new set of fancy headphones, Ed Dowie has just given you a really good one. The sonic detail on display in this blossoming petal of a record deserves the very best entry into your ears. Dowie quit the pop game to study experimental music following his stint with turn-of-the-Millenium indie boffins Brothers In Sound. As on his debut, 2017’s
The Uncle Sold, the extra swotting benefits us all. The snap of a digital snare vibrates out from the back of your head and seems to ripple gently across the room. Synth lines, aeroplanes, and creaking furniture drift across your ears; strings and guitars thrum somewhere over in a distant corner of your house, sneaking in to briefly add colour and shade to this or that passage. It’s quite something.
Patrick Clarke
, January 29th, 2021 12:00
The new year brings a continuation of old miseries, but a resurgence of extraordinarily good music. Here s our guide to the best albums and tracks of a particularly strong month
I m not sure why, but in a year so far as disastrous as the last, in which musicians fortunes continue to plummet to the point that total collapse looms as a real possibility, the art they ve been releasing sounds stronger than ever.
From Sleaford Mods blistering career-best new album, to anti-colonialist duo Divide And Dissolve s unbelievably powerful cascades of crushing doom, to The Body s latest head-melting extremity, music has provided plenty of necessary catharsis.