High Places

Even considering High Places’ intricate, inventive and intriguing electronic make up, were the Brooklyn boy/girl duo any more understated to the initial ear, they’d almost certainly lose the listener completely. Mary Pearson and Robert Barber’s full length debut - following on from the fantastically-received first Emusic and then Thrill Jockey released collection of singles 03/07 - 09/07 - is so sparse, offbeat and a frankly right tricky bugger, that this writer must confess to being lost before being forever-gratefully found. ’High Places’ has gone from two to three to four stars in such a hypnotic manner that it’s near impossible to explain any initial misgivings.

Their’s, over time, is a fascinating sound, pitching somewhere between a frame-by-frame rewound version of El Guincho or Panda Bear and a torch bearer to the innovative bits-and-bob production techniques of Coldcut. ’The Storm’ opens with a flurry of artificial steel drums that are then married with all manner of scene-setting glitches and tricks up Barber’s sleeve before Pearson’s unfussy yet increasingly mesmeric 80’s 4AD-style vocals slide in. It’s about as instantaneous and straightforward as things get when songs like ‘Vision’s The First’ - a gloriously unsettling fusion reminiscent of Clint Mansell’s tougher Requiem For A Dream soundtracking compositions - lie ahead.

The bounding ‘Gold Coin’, Orient-tinged ‘Golden’ and simply breathtaking closer ‘From Stardust to Sentience’ - Barber’s beats are almost modernly savage on all three - similarly reach the eventually expansive heights in a record that ultimately becomes the most rewarding of listens. There are few greater sensations for a listener than ‘getting an album’ and fewer still when the utmost of patience is required. Maybe I’m just slow or maybe this barely-scraping-the 30-minute-mark record will pass many by but please, strap on the earphones, grab a cup of tea or three and give High Places the time they deserve.