Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GET THE PARTY STARTED
LOCAL ELECTRO ACT ARVO PARTY DROPS HIS SECOND ALBUM AND IT DOESN’T DISAPPOINT
We love a slice of quality homegrown electronica, particularly when that slice follows the still-on-repeat debut slice. Herb Magee’s Arvo Party alias was responsible for one of our favourite albums of 2017, the debut ‘Arvo Party’.
With the thud of tracks like Longitudelatitude, Null Set and Grube still putting our bass bins to the test, his second album ‘II’ was released this week continuing where ‘Arvo Party’ left off.
‘II’ adds a level of depth and subtly to the previous work with an increased focus on some classical elements and styles.
Take for example
L I L a C a R C H which stutters and shakes into life shifting and morphing from a piano ballad into a driving pulse across it’s 8 minute life.
The dancefloor focussed
Liberte, which is up for the NI
Music Best Single award, sounds like something Daft
Punk would create on a sombre Sunday with it’s thoughtful filtering of emotional synths and deft use of arpeggios.
For these ears, one of the stand out moments comes in the album’s final track 4s & 7s. An unaccompanied piano track feels like we have arrived at the heart and soul of Arvo Party.
I’m not crying... you are.
“There’s a lot more piano on this one, that was definitely on purpose,” explains Herb. “As much as I like kick drums and synths, they don’t always age well. I listen to a lot of classical and piano based music so I guess I want that to shine through.”
Instead of focusing on producing tracks for an album, the process behind this record was different with a move to create tracks that build to an overall feeling.
“When I released the first record it was only because that collection of tracks felt like an album to me, as someone who grew up listening to records from start to finish. This album is much the same in that respect. I wasn’t trying to make an album, I was just trying to keep working in good music. Then at some point, when I put the tracks together, it felt like an album.”
Collaboration was something that featured more on this record as well.
“My daughter is on there, giggling, in the first track as her mother plays a singing bowl over a cacophony of synths representing a break through the earth’s atmosphere towards a campfire in the mountains of Estes Park. My brother makes an appearance too, adding guitar to 37 D E G R E E S, a track with took nearly 2 months to piece together into what I heard in my head.
“I see this album a lot like a big night out, when you’re home alone, heartbroken and don’t want to go. Dark. And darker. Yet somewhere in the middle you actually end up having a good time and maybe even dancing. The hangover is hellish but there are revelations still unfolding from the previous night.”
Big night out you say? Just tell us when and where!
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