Bus

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SUB (Australia)

Disco Suns is one of the first opening tracks on an album in ages to get me genuinely excited. The intro sounds like it could be something from (bear with me) Sting or Peter Gabriel – immaculate, glassy production that suggests an unfolding; so its almost a surprise when a 4-4 eases upwards, and everything falls away to form a very tight – and very psychedelic – progressive groove. The unfurling, dynamic quality of this is fucking brilliant, and the way it slowly brings back the theme that was so markedly set out in the intro is nothing short of genius.

Take A Walk With Me is a whole heap deeper, the emphasis is all on low-set clattering grooves winding in and out of each other… it’s like future jungle dub, with some mouthwateringly glitchy twists. Devastating. Outta Their Loco Vulcan Heads moves like an old Delta track; the progression is pure psychedelic techno; but the sounds are just insane. The bottomend buffs along nicely, the percussion layering is simply gobsmacking, and the depth of it… fuck… this psyreviewsing little c*nt is beyond words. For once. Plastico has a great opening, fully wideranging sounds that sort of suggest gamma goblins, before the tune proper drops into a delicious bit of dark psybooty. The break is insane, it’s lysergic-double-dipped, incredibly twisted and twistedly incredible.

Bambi And Thumper takes that standard psy guitar sound but pushes it lower in the mix, where for my money it works a lot better. Building up female vocals, extreme funk, and percussion that’s tighter than the girls they talk about on porn sites. It’s got a rare hypnotism about it, that sucks you right into the middle of it and keeps you locked there. Bus L’Overture is billed as being by “Gus Till Conducts the Concrete Unlimited Orchestra” and, well, I like it. It’s got a sort of whirlwind Disney about the strings theme, and it then moves through a sort of ticklish-james-bond. It’s got a mind of it’s own this one; anyone who can listen to this and still rate Jaia’s Orchestra 2.0 is one crazy-ass muthafucker.

Return Of The Fist is more of the sort of music I would have expected from Bus: moody, deep, low-set notquite-fullon with the emphasis on percussive grooves and classy escalation. Likewise Attitude Jets, a huge and wideopen track that picks up increasing degrees of nastiness and thunkiness, just like being married to a serial killer except it’s done in eight minutes. Finally Slinky Wizard’s Depth Charger gets a remix, and while it’s bouncy and energetic I can’t help feeling that Gus could have done more with it. Fine for bringing an oldie up to date, and the way the melodies sit together is crunchily satisfying, but it detracts from the rest of the album. Which is, let’s recap, a wonderfully mature, varied little album that’ll come as a nice refresher from the plethora of shite.

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