Animat – Heart Shaped Balloons
January 9th, 2007 by rui
I’ve only just put it on and suddenly the writing of words into a computer seems like an awful lot of bother. Could I just have a little lie down? Cheers. I’ll be back when the EP’s finished playing. In the meantime why don’t you have a look at the artwork?…
…so, what was it like?
This four track EP opens with the title track and a voice from NASA talking about a Shuttle launch until they get stuck looping around the words ‘coming valentines day’. A warm, enveloping few minutes meandering around bassline, synth chops and vocal snippets – drenched in heavy low frequencies and delay – sets the scene for the rest of the EP.
‘Touch and Go’ serves up a superb central vocal. A piercing, pleading ‘Don’t leave me here’ cut right through this lovely slab of dubby downtempo. ‘Lights Out’ continues with the teasing, atmospherics, lolloping groove and vocal treatments showcasing Mark Daly and Michael Harding’s programming skills.
Subtle chord changes and evolving arrangements reward repeat listens of this EP. The Animat formula of floating atmospherics over dubbed out percussion and warm, righteous bass working round interesting vocal work makes for a soothing sound that practically insists you put you put your feet up, close your eyes and chill.
The final track is a remix of ‘Sign Wave with Bynoral adding some weight to the beats. Sits nicely with the rest of the EP, but for this listener, not quite as strong as the Animat originals.
‘Heart Shaped Baloons’ shows Animat progressing beyond their first two EPs and is well recommended if you prefer you tunes to have any rough edges smoothed off.
rx
‘Heart Shaped Balloons’ by Animat is out now on download via tunetribe and CD via animat.co.uk
