Multi-layered, complex indie-pop from this Manchester band’s debut that will stimulate your senses like little else around at the moment.
If you’re to really engage the ears while propelling you to the indie dancefloor, Manchester’s Dutch Uncles are surely worth investigating.
This debut UK album, following some adventures and a debut record in Germany in 2009, boasts a musical breadth and sense of adventure that should be applauded.
Singer Ducan Wallis’ plangent, plaintive vocals ring through webs of activity - synths and programmed beats ally with drums, all rejoicing in stilted time signatures, while layers of melodies and counter melodies are interwoven throughout in guitar, piano and, in The Rub, xylophone and glockenspiel.
The vibrant Orval is a highlight, swooning and marching by turns and coming across like the kind of intelligent pop Belle & Sebastian’s musical savant brother might make.
A complex, compelling beauty.
4 stars
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