There is, it goes without saying, a profound irony in the human being’s incessant scouring for “someone to be quiet with” in such impossibly Loud Places as the pubs and clubs that besmirch less-than-great British suburbia and beyond. Nonetheless, that’s the way we’re conditioned to behave (and subsequently misbehave, perhaps) these days, thus so be it. However, as another weekend’s heartless, similarly-lost-soul-searching now approaches, and does so posthaste, you could do far worse than to slink off into Jamie xx’ Romy-featuring, Idris Muhammad-sampling Loud Places…
The latest to surface from his forthcoming début solo full-length, In Colour, the track’s each and every euphoric chorus hears Frank Floyd sing, “I have never reached such highs/ I feel music in your eyes.” And make no mistake: this is less the sight, and more the sound of Smith upping the ante, and doing so quite remarkably, as Madley Croft’s supple guitars – looped and gloriously lissom in the background – are both gradually and dextrously mixed in with a sort of soft otic “ecstasy” to rival that provided by past Eurodance doyens such as Dangerzone, Gala, Haddaway and whatnot. Throw in a rack of guitar lines reminiscent of 9 PM (Till I Come), and such questionable parallels become marginally less so atop a backdrop directly redolent of early Massive Attack. Nonetheless, we’ll leave it there and merely implore you bash play below, and allow Jamie and Romy to “take you to higher places you can’t reach” without the pair of them right now…
In Colour will be available from June 1st, via Young Turks.