Adem – Homesongs (Domino Recordings)
March 15th, 2004 by susanna
Given Adem’s day job as 1/3 of post-rock experimentalists Fridge you could be forgiven for expecting ‘Homesongs’ be another glitch laden fest (should that be fete?) of pastoral electronica. And the barely audible electronic thrum, as opening track ‘Statued’ rumbles in, seems to confirm this. However, just as you start donning red socks and stout boots in anticipation of another (ahem.) folktronic-esqe (sorry) rampage around the great outdoors, the thrum fades and a deftly plucked autoharp whisks you back from the brink.
Yet, even with the introduction of an acoustic guitar, tempting as it may be to unlace your boots, you can’t help but expect things at any moment to become chopped up/reversed/looped/sampled and the rug under foot to be hastily retrieved. But it isn’t. Instead, what arrives next is – especially given the absence of any on Fridge’s back catalogue – as surprising as it is welcome – Adem’s vocals.
Adem’s voice is rich, warm, and above all honest. The combination of a languid yet confident delivery and wistful lyricism is enough to finally persuade that it is ok to swap your walking boots for slippers. If you own any (you can keep the red socks on if you like, I won’t tell anyone).
While last year’s rambunctious ‘Rounds’, by Fridge band mate Kieran Hebden, led us out on an extreme ramble, Adem here tries, and succeeds, in convincing that staying in is the new going out. On this, his solo debut, he clears a patch in the misted up window, peers out and says, ″it’s ok, everything will be alright″, before drawing the curtains and turning on another bar on the fire.
As its name suggests, the unplugged electronica of ‘Homesongs’ is a largely home made collection of enthralling, charismatic songs. Put together in the early hours in Adem’s London flat, it is perhaps one of the few records made by the recent crop of bedroom producers that reassures that it’s creator has more experience of life, than of electronic jiggery-pokery. It also takes bedroom production further, and more literally than most, with a duvet to baffle a whirring computer and percussion sounding like thumped pillows.
Deceptively simple and disarmingly beautiful, the arrangement of Adem’s heartfelt vocal delivery, acoustic guitar and simple percussion, remains dominant throughout the duration of Homesongs, while the occasional inclusion of autoharp and harmonium puts one more in mind of Domino label-mate James Yorkstone, than of Fridge or Four Tet.
The introspective yet playful lyrics: ‘it sunned, and it rained, and it sunned again’, exude wit and charm, and instantly endear, in doing so contributing to the sense of familiarity that comes from the first listen. With ‘Homesongs’, Adem has created a timeless, classic collection of songs, and an articulate demonstration of human warmth, which, every time you return to – and trust me, you will return – leaves you smiling, singing and humming along without even realising.
In bedroom terms, this is a 15-tog duvet of a record.
Words: Ted
Adem’s ‘Homesongs’ is out 29th March 2004 on Domino Recordings
