‘The Loneliness
of the Long Distance Traveller’ is the 8th album by
Nottingham based band Radium88. The band consists of Jema Davis who
provides the delicate and ethereal vocals and Tim Thwaites, who
pretty much does everything else!
I must confess an
ignorance of the band up until recently when I discovered a track
titled ‘ The Futures bright, The Futures Incandescent’ ,their
contribution to Toby Mark’s (of Banco de Gaia fame) recent
compilation ‘Strange Eyed Constellations'.
This album
represents somewhat of a ‘stylistic leap sideways’ for the band,
according to the blurb that I received with the album.
It certainly
builds upon the ambient dub like textures apparent on ‘The Futures
bright’ with a more, at times, guitar and beat driven formula;
however, funnily enough, for me the more interesting and richly
textured tracks are the ones of a more sedate vintage (although the
change in tempo mid song during Track 4 ‘Renunciation Blues’ from
a Dubby chugger to a slide guitar driven voodoo wig out is simply
superb. My only complaint with this track is that it could have gone
on for longer).
The album begins
with ‘Disavowed, no doubt unaware’ sounds like it being heard
over the airwaves beamed out for the depths of space. This segues
nicely into ‘who will save us from the waves?'
Track 5 ‘Washed
by Gravity’s Waves’ is reminiscent of a lullaby overheard from
Cygnus XI- quaint and yet somewhat disturbing. This sense of unease
and melancholy seems to permeate throughout the album, in keeping
with the title and track names, perhaps representing a concept?
The beginning of
Track 6 ‘The girl who outshined the Void’ with its gorgeous piano
refrain put me in mind of an out-take from the Blade Runner
soundtrack, before gentle beats are layered to aid a perfect
accompaniment to the piano.
‘Heavy water,
falling Stone’ is simply sublime- building delicately with Jema’s
floating, choral vocals, it also progresses to become subtly more
beat driven, intertwined with some excellent guitar work- all the
parts working together in perfect harmony. This track for me
perfectly utilises Jema’s vocals to full strength
‘The
disappearing skies’ is the sound of a Parisian Café magically
transported to the beach of some far off star.
Things seem to
kind of weaken after this, with nothing seeming to match the
imagination of the tracks that have gone previously.
Overall this is a
good album with some lush and sophisticated ideas. Radium88 have
served up a strange little dish (no bad thing in a world of X-Factor
and its homogeneous banality) with more than a hint of melancholy,
but with moments of genuine lightness and charm.
Reviewed by
Matthew Foord
This album was
released by Lotek Recordings on the 1st of November 2015
and widely available for purchase
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