I go to Supernormal, the UK's best festival, in a few days, which is exciting. Watch out for a review in a month or so.
THE SUBTHEORY – SHARK TANK (self-release)
Sometimes we reviewers get paranoid about only making comparisons with old music, but as this new album by The Subtheory makes lyrical references to both vintage Cypress Hill and DJ Shadow, we feel justified in looking to the 90s for touchstones. From the smoky Loop Guru tabla groove of ‘All Other Things Can Wait’ at one end, to the prowling Mezzanine bass of ‘The Wolf In The Fairytale’ at the other, this album masterfully nods towards trip-hop and downtempo classics from the dying days of the twentieth century. We can also pick out the cultured cool of Lamb on ‘Footprints’, a laconic rap on ‘Blessings and Lessons’ which embodies the unhurried mentor spirit of Faithless’s Maxi Jazz, and the after-hours-hip-hop-DJ-discovers-forgotten-spy-theme flavour of Portishead is captured immaculately on ‘Crown of Thorns’.
But Shark Tank’s real victory is that it sounds like more than a list of impeccably curated reference points, and exhibits real character. A lot of this is down to the vocals of Cate Debu, a thistledown diva whose airy melancholia gives the songs depths that a thousand other chill-out acts wafting through chrome-and-velvet bars can only dream of. Guest vocalists lift the record to even greater heights, Pet Twin adding his introspective burr to the insidious snaky bass of ‘Song of the Damascene’ (which despite its title sounds less like a thunderbolt conversion and more like a lingering sense of dreadful doubt), whilst Emma Hunter’s unmistakable voice lends authority to the chorus of ‘The Sicilian Defence’. The Subtheory have licensed a lot of music to soundtracks, and perhaps there are one or two pieces here that are tastefully unobtrusive enough for a Netflix drama, but too smoothly polite for a proper listen, but this is a minor gripe: whether you lived through the 90s or have only spun the playlists, Shark Tank is both authentic and original, which is a tricky – or even Tricky – target to hit
