DIAGRAMS - Black Light

The first few seconds of "Ghost Lit", the opening track of this "Black Light", are enough to give the game away. It's none other than Sam Genders, frontman of Tunng, who, while waiting for something new from his band, indulges himself with his first solo outing. Setting aside the stricter folk sound of his past, Genders leans harder into electronics while keeping his taste for sweet melody, this time steered into more indie territory.

The Tunng stamp is branded right into this record. And perhaps it couldn't be otherwise, even if Sam seems keen to do something completely different. It almost feels like a need to distance himself from a pop sensibility that nonetheless soon shows through.

The sixties flavour of the opening track and the danceable rhythm of the following "Tall Building" make you wonder what all this is leading to. The soft acoustic tension of "Night All Night" and the electronic edges of "Appetite" at least shake off the torpor, before Genders finally shows his true worth on the obsessive darkness of "Mills". This track, together with the deranged brew somewhere between Mum and Animal Collective that is "Antelope", and the title track, delivers the album's finest moments.

Sam lets loose in the album's closing stretch with the spatial tribalism of "Animals", before returning to Tunng territory with the delicate folktronica ballad "Peninsula". Not to mention the ghost track tucked away at the 23rd minute of the album's last track, a funereal mantra that dissolves into a classically rock-sized explosion.

A rather confused collection from Diagrams, with some good ideas but ultimately far from convincing. Let's take it as a divertissement while we wait for Tunng to get seriously back on track.

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07/02/2012