The percussion at the start of ‘Gone‘, which opens the London/Paris based electronic artist Romare’s third full length album, is such that you wonder whether it’s going to be an updated version of Steve Winwood‘s ‘Higher Love‘, but that thought is soon put to bed with its feel of a relaxing train trip which pays heed to Leftism era Leftfield and Screamedelica period Primal Scream, without ever sounding too much like either.
I mentioned the train ride because that’s exactly what Home feels like – a journey. Perhaps a rather psychedelic one, granted, but a journey all the same. It has to be a train, incidentally. If you tried to listen to it in the car, you’d likely get so hypnotised that you’d end up driving your car off the end of the pier into the sea. Although you’d probably find yourself, once submerged, on some kind of fantastical cartoon journey with vivid colours and giant, friendly cats who lead you through the Skewiff Mountains into the Land Of Perfect Sun. I ought to add, as a disclaimer here, drugs are bad, kids, don’t try this at home…
To break this down into a review of separate tracks, however, would be to do Home a great disservice, a bit like driving through Arizona and dozing off and missing the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon etc, but waking up in time to discuss the new McDonalds 100 yards down the road. It works far better as a flowing, uninterrupted piece, through the twitchy piano loops of ‘The River‘, past the fluttering moonlight of ‘Deliverance‘ and the quiet jubilance of ‘Heaven‘, all the way to the record’s conclusion, when we arrive ‘Home‘, wearied from our travels and ready to retire from our exertions, happy in the knowledge that we’ve been on quite an adventure, ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
Yes, I know my review was a load of pretentious old bollocks, but if you can imagine the opposite to that, then you have Romare’s Home in a nutshell. It’s really quite beautiful and easy to fall in love with, if you just let it happen.
Home is released on 31st July Through Ninja Tune.
