GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT - Origins

I acknowledge from the outset that this is a slightly odd review. For a drum and bass enthusiast to write about a new and hotly anticipated post-rock LP is a bit like having a Vietnamese food vendor review your local Michelin starred restaurant. He’s going to be out of his depth; a touch befuddled; and he is in no way going to possess the adequate vocabulary needed to describe what he is experiencing. But he is going to like it. Such was my feeling when I first listened to the clips of God is an Astronaut’s new LP, entitled Origins, a few weeks ago. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was listening to, what genre of what I normally refer to as ‘band’ music I was coming into contact with, but I knew instantly that I liked it. Later, I learned that it was being pressed on a clear translucent vinyl, of which only 500 copies were going to be produced. Being an apprentice vinyl hoarder, this was all the persuasion I needed to stick an order in. I then promptly forgot I had even made said order, and therefore got a pleasant surprise when it turned up on my doorstep a couple of weeks later.

The sounds made by this lucent piece of wax are fantastic. Pleasant piano melodies intertwine gorgeously with slow, deliberative guitar riffs, while those orchestral walls of noise rise up in almost every track to engulf you within a cocoon of warmth and calm. There is a fuzzy, analogue feel to the whole thing, almost as if the album is being transmitted to you underwater: it conjures up ripples and distortions in the sound which provide a wonderful contrast to the mechanical, laser guided productions we tend to hear more and more of these days. Personal favourites off the LP include 'Weightless', a euphoric, almost messianic track that summons up an effortless atmosphere of bliss, and 'Autumn Song', which features a spiralling lead piano melody and an echoing vocal that soars and recedes in the background of the song. Also notable are 'Strange Steps', with its slow, thoughtful riff and that fleeting, ghostly vocal, and 'Spiral Code', which screams of Gotham Town and Jukebox on a Friday night in Newcastle. We are treated to peaks and troughs, sorrows and intensities, all before the outro track 'Light Years from Home' bids us farewell with a twinkling, electronically garbled chorus. 

I found myself enjoying this LP more and more, and in hindsight I think I know why. As I listened to it, I kept comparing it to the sort of ambient music I am used to, the sort of stuff made by the likes of ASC and Sam KDC, wondering how they had managed to capture the same sort of essence using instruments and not a computer with loads of hardware plugged in. And that's precisely it I feel. With Origins, God is an Astronaut have taken the abstract, downtempo electronica that I know and love and then fused it wonderfully with the very same contemporary 'band' music that I sometimes struggle to understand. The result is enchanting. And for that, not only have they taken my money for this stunning piece of work, but they have also taken my endorsement, my sincere approval, and my utmost respect. One of the only bands, it should be noted, to ever do so. It is out now, and I therefore strongly suggest that you pick it up, whatever your normal musical inclinations may be. 

Matthew Scott