Best known for his drill’n’bass work as
Animals On Wheels, with releases for Ninja Tune, Cambridge-based
Andrew Coleman has been exploring more subtle and delicate
musical forms in the last few years. Everything
Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt, released in 2001
on Thrill Jockey, his third album, the first to be released
under his own name, hinted at folk structures augmented
with found sounds and electronics, evoking a more introvert
version of Greg Davis’s
early work. With its follow up, Demons,
published on the excellent Trippel Records in 2004,
Coleman refined his autistic melodies further, breaking
up his sound sources into a multitude of tiny pieces
before painstakingly reassembling them
For his latest effort, Coleman injects a generous dose
of beats and grooves into his crystalline soundscapes
and steps into more welcoming territories. Released
on Manchester-based imprint C0c0s0l1dc1t1, Tony
Alva’s Hair is a far more accessible and
instant piece of work than previous releases. The title’s
reference to seventies skateboard legend and Lords Of
Dogtown hero Alva bears no real relevance to the record
itself. From Coleman’s own admission, he wanted
a title that didn’t create a statement on the
content of the album.
Coleman still refers to the general sonic template of
previous recordings, but this times he assembles far
richer structures around hip-hop-infused beats and grooves.
Right from the outset, it is clear that things have
taken a different turn on here. Early Fall From
Nowhere is funky and warped in equal measures,
and its gentle melody soon becomes too annoyingly catchy
to go unnoticed. Over Head And Under Feet continues
on a similar path, and the sudden appearance of Dose
One on Not A Speculation provide yet another
clue of the general direction taken with this record.
It is not to say that Coleman has totally abandoned
the delicate folk tones of previous recordings. Traces
can still be found in the background on almost every
track, and more evidently on the piano-led Rain
& Dogs or on the hidden track that concludes
the album, but they don’t appear as his main point
of focus anymore. As he constructs solid rhythmic backbones
and weave his soundscapes around them, he re-introduces
playful urban elements to his work.
With each new album, Andrew Coleman offers a glimpse
at a different side of his musical persona before refining
it. Here, he comes out of his shell and soaks up the
sun once again. If Demons
was the sound of Coleman looking inward, with Tony
Alva’s Hair, he undoubtedly turns to the
outside world and is determined to make his presence
felt.
4.2/5 |
