"Other Voices"
Dingle; Co Kerry 23rd January 2016

Lineage : DVB-T RTE 2 HD > Triax TSC114 > HDD (.ts) > VideoReDo (trim only) > .ts

Length : 15.19

01. Seven Walls
02. Matador
03. The Girl Who Fell To Earth

Gaz Coombes is one of the more intriguing men in British music. Roaring into Britpop culture with the brilliant I Should Coco just over 20 years ago, Supergrass have a special place in many people’s hearts. And when it looked like the band had run its course, Coombes and co simply stopped the show and moved on.

Coombes, though, has plenty more to say and his second solo album, Matador, rightly got a nomination for this year’s Mercury Prize. (This year it was won by Benjamin Clementine, who was on the cards to play Other Voices but didn’t make it at the last minute.) Coombe’s latest record is a substantial, layered piece of complex electronic rock, striking out into dark and intriguing territory.

Here, the arrangements have been stripped back a little, with Coombes relying on some loops, samples and his own innate showmanship to carry the hour, and it’s a cracking way to spend the evening. Detroit has swagger and charm, Seven Walls has its cool credentials in order, and White Noise from Here Come the Bombs is a fine bolt of emotion from the blue. Add to this the natural charm of a man at the tail end of a very fine year in his career, and you have a terrific Other Voices set.