Review Summary: A house for healing.
The new record from Matmos' Drew Daniel is one rooted in affirmation. His work as The Soft Pink Truth has been perhaps most notable for its high-concept approach to house. Over the last twenty years he's devoted time to recontextualizing the sounds of punk (
Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth?), black metal (
Why Do the Heathen Rage?), and YouTube (
Why Pay More?).
Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? is less overtly conceptual, but possesses The Soft Pink Truth's trademark strongly-intentioned approach. Daniel has described it as his album-length response to a "private feeling of powerlessness", crafting an album that is an attempt to connect with others, to process difficult emotions, and ultimately to soothe.
The album's sound is characterized by a fusion of house rhythms with the textures of jazz, chamber, and choral music. It is the use of voices that are initially most striking to me. Other than the album's title being sung as a round on opener "Shall", Daniel uses the voice as pure instrument, layering waves of sighs atop a pulsing dance beat on "We" and uplifting, questing keens in "On". The track "Sinning" creates a tense, transitional moment in the center of the album as saxophones weave dissonant melodies over a glockenspiel and a driving bassline. It's a highlight of the record, and its difficult atmosphere nicely sets up the cathartic and pensive mood of the record's second half.
The back half is full of lovely piano (especially in penultimate track "Grace") and features fewer house signatures. The voices become more distorted and hypnotic, the horns distant and alien, the percussion all but disappears. The last four songs are not made for the dance floor, but are mixed impeccably as the instrumental elements cohere beautifully but retain their individual clarity. The album's real catharsis comes during the second half of "Grace", as Daniel reintroduces the percussive sound of bells and snares atop his tape loops before a wailing looped vocal melody finally bursts through. The final track "May Increase" is all falling action, a warm winding down to the piano finally striking a major triad.
Released during a time of global isolation and crisis,
Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase is a beautiful piece of music that is genuinely healing, a meticulously crafted odyssey that nudges one toward a better state of mind.
