Grace/ConfusionCarpark ***
Although this is a relatively short album, Dayve Hawk's experimental, melodic vision has been realised over six compositions that reflect a playful intellect and many competing, yet complementary elements. The pysch-pop of Neighbourhood Watch seeps into the wonky world of Thru the Field, the additional breakbeats and drifting guitars wafting over like passing snowstorms. This sense of travelling permeates a record that conflates a myriad of sounds, having the effect Hawke sings of on Safety, "a sound wearing me down, it's like the voice of a friend but it's not". It leads into the Animal Collective-like Let Me Be. Each song goes down unexpected routes – Sheila sounds like a folk song trapped among wild synthesizers, Follow Me sounds like an electronic Bee Gees. It all pleasingly becomes what Hawk describes as "chaotic reaching".
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Download:Neighbourhood Watch