Simian Mobile Disco Welcome To Sideways

Delicacies

Welcome To Sideways sees UK electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco take a shift in gear and move towards a more dancefloor-focused, Techno sound than we have seen before. Their fifth studio album to date and their first since 2014’s Whorl, Welcome To Sideways (a title that encompasses their natural proclivity for sounding radically different from album to album, yet maintaining a constant coherence) is an expressive and shimmering excursion into the more underground, bass-driven club music that has long been rumbling under the surface of SMD’s output.

It seems a simpler studio set-up for the writing and recording of the album has fostered a more natural, flowing feel throughout the record. The duo tap into long and hypnotic grooves and ride them out into a sea of uncoiling synths and shuffling rhythms. The whole record has a stripped-back simplicity, but executed with sharp focus. This gives it a raw and driving energy, its surging bass swelling up and providing the momentum for the entire record. For all its dark, snapping Techno, there are also plenty of typical SMD melodies wafting over the top, adding colour and emotion to the mechanics at play underneath.

Totally timeless with no nods to current trends or fashions, you feel this is exactly the album the duo wanted to make. Forever evolving and always pushing the envelope, SMD continue to prove why they remain such important stalwarts of the UK electronic music landscape.

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