Immersion – WTF?

Swim~

After the best part of fifty years in the game for Colin Newman and over forty for Malka Spigel, you could be forgiven for thinking that they had run out of things to say. But this latest album, from their long-running collaboration Immersion, casts a stark eye over the state of the world. However, where a lot of people may find only darkness and despair, WTF? attempts to see a positive way out and urges the listener to search within for a strength that may pull them through.

Over eight sleek but urgent tracks, four of which are vocal and four instrumental, they lay down some motorik grooves that pulse irresistibly. The opener “Defiance” has a real urgency to the beat, propelled by drummer Matt Shulz. This irrepressible groove is littered with guitar textures and there is a kind of soundtrack tone that finds them describing shadows and mystery over the barrelling beat. It is these little details thrown into the tracks that prevent them from becoming formulaic and the underlying dark energy continues throughout.

Bass is more prominent on “Use It Don’t Lose It”, the first vocal track; but again it is the motorik propulsion that urges the listener. Notes are picked out to enhance that movement, while Colin’s half-spoken words contain a veiled ambiguity. His entreaties are less direct, making suggestions and hoping to spark the listener into drawing their own conclusions and they suit his cool delivery. This way of interspersing instrumental and vocal tracks works well, so while you are digesting a message, there is more of their patchwork prowess with “It’s A Long Way To Brooklyn” being more sluggish, with the weaving synth textures standing out further.

There is a spacey element to side closer “Timeline”, with the tempo elevated and a more minimalist approach that finds their tapestry completed by the judicious application of synthetic parts that wash around Malka’s voice; hers is more distant, but the content more direct and positive, which goes hand in hand with the clean lines of the song’s base. Colin joins in half way through and his sense of self-awareness in the lyrics gives the impression that the idea of messages through music is one they still firmly believe in.

Their contrasting vocal styles work well together, with Malka’s more positive observations and warmer delivery combining with Colin’s more acerbic way and I couldn’t help thinking of Stereolab in the hypnotic groove but here on “How To Be”, it is laced with phased guitar. There is a cool Euro groove on “Change Of Use”, with synth washes layered over a skeletal drum and bass workout while “Push The Rock” is a mantra by which to live: ‘Push the rock, feel and think”. It has a poppy hypnotic repetition that suits the transfer of power to the listener, urging them to take control.

Closer “On The Longest Day” is a far starker piece than has come so far. It moves far above the earth, the haze of air travel replacing the groove of the other pieces, its drumless waft a fitting finale to an album that continues a legacy undimmed by time. WTF? is a real work of strength, togetherness and positivity and as such should be lapped up by all.

-Mr Olivetti-