f one sequence of songs were to arrive right now, pretty much capturing how things are, the way we feel, it would be this one.
Fragile is a 5 song EP served up to us by Matthew Schott and Al Quarterman’s The Last Clouds.
This is electronic but not synthetic, a real human experience built with machines, expressed by an anxious, darkly melodic soul, singing his heart out.
The voice of our communal isolation experience.
Matthew’s world weary words inhabit a paranoid audio landscape of icy synths and sweeping arpeggios.
We, the listeners, are taken on a journey to a new synth-pop place.
The Last Clouds’ synthesist Al creates drama and emotional dynamics matched by his purposeful beats and bass lines. This is pop, the dark, electronic stuff; you know the place where Bowie should have gone.
Should we forget, this an EP.
Old money for a splurge of ideas, a collection, a theme that has been been properly explored.
From the 5 songs we have 5 environments, linked sonically, each telling its own individual story.
”Ghostlands” opens with a spidery arpeggio which breaks open into story telling reminiscent of Peter Gabriel at his most fearful. ”It’s Not The End Of All Time” achieves a swirling psychedelic electronica, showcasing treated pianos and infected strings giving way to “Josephine” and her twinkling fades and warm chords.
“The River” leads us through a suitably watery piano led ballad into “Contact”, a powerful synth driven epic.
There is little point in attempting to avoid superlatives here; The Last Clouds’ Fragile EP has the gravitas of later Depeche Mode complete with soaring A-ha grade melodies.
Daring to be honest, challenging and sincere.
Fragile sounds like a warning, a reminder that what we have as humans is always worth fighting for, something to hold on to.
If you've been craving something dark and gritty yet stylish and dancefloor-ready, this hard-edged industrial synth opus might fit the bill. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 16, 2024
Interlocking harmonies, melty washes of guitars, and dream-like atmospherics abound on the L.A. shoegaze group's new EP. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 6, 2024
A revved-up reinterpretation of traditional Portuguese music, exploring various folkways through the lenses of jazz, pop, and electronic. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 21, 2024