Ben Cooper and Alex Kane are back as Electric President with a new album under their arms called The Violent Blue. I was introduced to Electric President through a compilation put together by a great music mag called Foggy Notions…it was a lush publication that has long since fallen by the wayside, just like Plan B…why do all the best ones crumble?
Anyway they’re back, and they sound nothing like their 2006 S/T, maybe wishful thinking on my part but those days are long gone. It also doesn’t carry the same heavier moodiness of 2008’s Sleep Well. There is a greater sparseness of musical noise in places with a lot more production ribbon.
The term Violent Blue refers to the ocean and there is a darkness about the whole album all be it a fairly peaceful and atmospheric one. The sound they create on The Ocean Floor is maybe how you might expect the ocean to sound if you were underneath with a storm raging up above. There is a strong sense of power, one that makes you feel very small and inconsequential.
The title track, The Violent Blue, starts with a very ambient and calm ocean of sound, a background to some very introspective and poetic lyrics.
The fog rolls on in from the sea
Like a curtain draped from the bolts of heaven
And out here the moon burns through the night
Like the eyes of strays caught in headlights
And I hear you hum a song I’d written
And the condensation collects on my feet
And my lungs contract as the curtain thickens
And I hear you say you’d like to see what’s down beneath the violent blue
And as you say those words my legs turn leaden
Safe and Sound was an instant like. Not because it’s quieter, which it is…you should know by now we don’t shy away from that, we like to wake some of you up now and again by making your speakers fall off the wall or blowing up those cute looking micro speakers you got for your laptop at Christmas…no,…I just like the way it holds together, and it has a catchy melody. It was easy.
Elegant Disasters follows in a similar vein…really catchy and not requiring re-visits to let it grow. Overall, this isn’t an instant gratification album, it takes a few listens to get beneath it, but it’s a grower and well worth the listen.
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