Rating: NNNN
London-bred, Vienna-based producer, remixer and songwriter Sohn (aka Christopher Taylor) has worked with up-and-coming singer BANKS, indie darlings Rhye and big-time house duo Disclosure.
Now, with his debut LP, he’s making considerable waves of his own. On Tremors, Taylor’s perfect voice (think Rhye’s Mike Milosh or a silkier Justin Timberlake) floats pretty melodies over stuttering beats, soothing synth lines, bleeps, bloops and the occasional injection of moody bass. The themes of his songs – Ransom Notes, Paralysed, Bloodflows – are often defeatist. Even the more uptempo tracks (Artifice sounds most like the mainstream dance of today’s Daft Punk, for example) are bleak in lyrical content. But even though the chords are minor and the mood sombre, there’s something pure, clean and uncluttered about the record that prevents it from being altogether sad. It breathes. And you’ll want to sing along to all of Taylor’s repeated assertions.
He’s got a knack for electronic percussion, too, nodding to bhangra one moment and steel drums the next.
Top track: The Wheel
Sohn plays the Horseshoe May 14.
