I know what you’re all thinking. You’re thinking that no-one does instrumental like the Irish these days, and that if some terrible mess of an album comes along and Kenny G’s on our parade, you will be very upset indeed. I know this because I am thinking it too.
So it’s with the lightest of hearts that I present Strands – a sublimely trippy pop outfit whose output also functions as an effective aural hallucinogen.
Strands is the brainchild of Halfset member and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Shannon, who you may remember from the production credits on many recent great Irish albums, including records by Groom and Babybeef.
When you take his bulging résumé into account (he’s also worked with Adrian Crowley, David Turpin and Cap Pas Cap), it’s not surprising that Shannon should conjure up something like ‘Framed’, a chimesome lesson in musical mixology, or the jolly World Music jaunt that is ‘Littoral’.
Elsewhere on the eponymous debut, the echoey ‘Choir Bell’ boasts more quirk than Imogen Heap’s handbag, while ‘The Alamo’ is smooth and understated – a direct contradiction to the images its title conjures up. Ditto ‘Temper’, a giddy ballad with a funky brass overlay.
Over the course of a lush 41 minutes, Strands miraculously combines the charging melodies of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness-day Smashing Pumpkins and the plonking horns of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois.
While not exactly a rollercoaster of sound like some of the other top-notch instrumental records the homegrown contingent have produced this year, Strands is a cohesive, accomplished debut that puts clever tunesmith Stephen Shannon among the most enticing Irish artists of the moment.
Key Track: ‘Choir Bell’