The End Of The Beginning

As Super A.D., the duo of Torsten and Niels Kinsella scored notable successes with a series of remixes (The 4 Of Us, Naimee Coleman and Deep Purple), while their debut album Revive enjoyed a run of popularity with the employees of Sky and RTE who choose the background music for sports programmes and adverts. It’s almost certain that a similar fate awaits the first effort from their latest incarnation God Is An Astronaut.

With new third man Noel Healy adding the drums and loops, The End Of The Beginning pretty much picks up where Revive left off, this time without any guest vocalists to distract our attention from the compelling compositions.

There are a couple of complaints to make. The inclusion of a much too pleasant (but thankfully brief) cover of ‘Nights In White Satin’ was a mistake, in my opinion, and while the understated nature of Noel’s intentionally lo-fi beats in general works a treat – check the new single ‘From Dust To Beyond’ and the powerful ‘Fall From The Stars’ – you can’t help wishing for a thumping fuck-off breakbeat to take things up a gear.

Next time around, an extra edge of experimentation may be in order – but for now, The End Of The Beginning sounds wonderful. It hasn’t left my car stereo in days.