The Son(s) may well be the most elusive band on the Scottish music scene. Their Bandcamp bio is enigmatic to the point of poetry - "The Sons were three. Two are gone. Now there is only one." - and they're conspicuous by their absence on the live stage. But the music they make is always hazily sublime.
A self-titled debut album from 2011 had the gentle pacing of early Pink Floyd, while the vocals on the following year's more stylistically varied Leviathan EP reminded me at times of the proud fragility of Robert Wyatt. Other critics, quite rightly, have pointed to similarities - not only in sound, but also in mercurial artistry - to Gruff Rhys in his extra-Super Furry Animals solo phases.
The latest album from this Edinburgh-based project expands outwards and upwards to the next musical level. SAY Award winner RM Hubbert features as a guest collaborator, while the instrumental palette now incorporates something akin to a horn section on Vinnie & Ronnie Creeping On The Waitress and the spectral sounds of what might be a theramin on Paint Eyes On Your Eyelids.
It's a psychedelic-folk wonderland, with vocals gorgeously behind the beat and music intrepidly ahead of the pack.
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