GRAMMATICS have taken the time it needed to make this album a perfect record of their current state of pop genius. Five previously released songs (substantially re-recorded) and six fresh compositions, all of exceptionally high standard, comprise a gracefully perfect set on an album that very large numbers will want to own and play on repeat with no interruptions and no intrusions. Perhaps they will do this while consuming high-purity Ecuadorian single-estate chocolate with chilli and pink peppercorns.
The essential quality of the music is that its emotional hedonism is immediately accessible, while its distinctive and prodigious musical creativity delights and gratifies those hungry for novelty. There will be very few UK releases this year that approach it. The general territory might be pegged out somewhere near Patrick Wolf and Antony and the Johnsons, but the forms, themes and tunes remain highly individual and distinct.
Working with James Kenosha on production and recording, the band have achieved a warmer, fuller sound than we have heard so far. It suits the ambitious scale of the songs and it's good to hear plenty of well-placed and graceful embellishments on the older tunes. Delicate montages sit like beautifully made illustrations at opening and closing moments, easing the transitions and clearing the imagination for each song's new delights. At times the acoustic ambience of voice, acoustic guitar and cello can hold a single spotlit moment, at others there's a roar of cinematic proportions, created out of sheer perfectionism from whatever can be struck, tweaked, sung, bowed or layered on. The magnificent "Broken Wing" is a case in point. The earlier version was compelling, This one is magnificent. None of the songs bother with the tedium of verse chorus verse chorus middle eight ... they rush off giddily in whatever trajectory the mood and the impassioned logic dictate. And they don't falter or get lost for a moment: they are bursting with musical ideas. The new opening to "Shadow Committee" has a cheeky reference to I Like Trains, with a shivered helping of delay on the shifting four note guitar phrases. But listen even more closely (the album offers so many opportunism to do this) and you will hear each gap has a different glissando chord lower in the mix. Then the song explodes.
New songs "Relentless Fours", "Inkjet Lakes", "Rosa Flood", "Cruel Tricks Of The Light" and "Swan Song" are all advances on what has gone before, They seem to speak of many other songs left out so that only the best remain. Distinctive Grammatics motifs, like the simultaneous percussive attack on cello (Emilia Ergin), bass (Rory O’Hara), drums (Dominic Ord) and guitar, (Owen Brinley) and Owen's delirious flights of melodic invention are strong everywhere. So too the restless manipulation of time signatures and a refusal to repeat anything without variation or addition. Baroque and Roll? Only in the very best sense of baroque.
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Lyrics are impressionistic, fragmentary and allusive. Squeezed and stretched as they are, and wrapped around so much creative business from the band, they are not all audible on first listen. They follow the firm rule that nothing must be ordinary and nothing is allowed to be "good enough". Melodramatic phrases like "I'm taking to the stage tonight with a broken wing", or "you cool my blood until it creeps" find music and expression that make them real and urgent. New song "Relentless Fours" opens like a Steve Reich soundtrack to a heartbreak film from long ago, with Owen asking "Why are your clothes scattered on the garden when the taxi's waiting?" So simple, so beguiling, he goes on "Why are your eyes so dark and hooded and fallen? ... How can you call yourself an actress, when you can't get your act together?"
In fact, Owen's voice is such a star that first listens might skip the lyrics altogether. The emotional content is perfectly articulate on its own and Emilia's presence is strong in support and in running commentary. Note her vocals and, especially, her presence as cellist. This is no mere decorative accompaniment - she is a powerful part of the Grammatics appeal. Anticipate high drama to come. As if they weren't riches enough, the album also includes the voice of Laura Groves, a rising star in her own right.
As a début it is bravely challenging and wonderfully assured. A triumph.
The track listing is:
1. Shadow Committee
2. D.I.L.E.M.M.A.
3. Murderer
4. The Vague Archive
5. Broken Wing
6. Relentless Fours
7. Inkjet Lakes
8. Polar Swelling
9. Rosa Flood
10. Cruel Tricks Of The Light
11. Swan Song [with a hidden out take]
A limited edition 180 gm vinyl pressing is set to include the very grand "Time Capsules & The Greater Truth" as a bonus track
www.grammatics.com
www.last.fm/music/Grammatics
www.myspace.com/grammatics
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