Courtesy Of Choice

No disrespect to the other parties involved, but this is that rare artefact: an engineer’s album. The boffin in question is Persian-born Leila, who, according to the publicity blurb, did the mixing honours on Björk’s Post tour. It figures. Courtesy Of Choice, her second long player, is a master class in designer distortion and dynamic range. Yea verily, one imagines the final mixdown on this baby was as much a performance as the wildest tracking sessions.

It’s an album of sound rather than song. From ‘Work’ onwards, the third ear opens out and you enter a sonic realm strewn with all manner of aural wonders. In parts, COC is almost a pastoral techno take on city sickness: Eno or The Aphex Twin meets the sounds o’ The Massive perhaps, or DJ Shadow, or Soul II Soul deconstructed by Jah Wobble.

Naturally enough, Leila gives good riddim. A standout waltz entitled ‘Thanks Mr Jones’ allows drummer Tim Giles to get down to the real nitty gritty, sealing the join between jungle and jazz devilry with some slick brushwork, while the lab-rats in the backroom get busy with the kind of alarming orchestrations Barry Adamson concocts in his baddest dreams.

It’s the record’s one real demonic episode. The closing pieces, ‘Different Time (Reprise)’ and ‘Young Ones’, are more representative of the overall tone – a calm semi-ambient balm.

New colours, fresh tinglings, good stuff.