BEAUTIFY JUNKYARDS - Nova

Three years: that's the time separating “Cosmorama” from the new project by Beautify Junkyards, “Nova”: the Portuguese group's fifth album and third for Ghost Box, a work that precedes a tour that should also take in Italy.

Active since 2012, Beautify Junkyards have crafted a synthesis of aesthetic perfection and analogue approximation, teeming with learned nods to hauntology, intoxicated by tropicalia-style rhythms, suspended in that trip-hop modernism that has branded contemporary rock and pop music, enchanted by velvety lounge textures, but above all psychedelic/futurist in the dreamlike, literary dimension of the 1970s: a perfect musical oxymoron, where past and future blur together without ever truly meeting.

“Nova” is a further step toward that psych-synth utopia cultivated by Broadcast and then left to blossom in alien territories. To the already appreciated shades of colour, the Lisbon band adds new electronic vibrations, thanks to the addition of a new alchemist, Bernard Loopkin (synth and keyboards), and shakes up its soft, ethereal vocal arrangements, not only bringing in a new full-time singer alternating with the excellent Joao Branco Kyron, Martinez, but also hosting two heavyweights such as Paul Weller and Dorothy Moscowitz (United States Of America).

Fluid and subterranean, the sounds of “Nova” caress the most ambitious aspirations the Portuguese band has ever attempted, with the instruments almost losing their identity in an analogue-electronic transfiguration with cosmic-acid-world traits, which naturally bears the mark of recent side experiences with the Hidden Horse project and the solo outpourings of Joao Branco Kyron.

The rhythm section is more powerful here, caught between hypnotic grooves and an affinity with drum'n'bass tempered by a magmatic, hazy electronic rapture, in a play of echoes and reflections that invites a kind of sabbatic dance ("Dancer's Reward"), before seducing and enchanting with melodies reminiscent of the sirens' song from the Odyssey ("Somersault").

"Nova" is an album that's even harder to break down into individual episodes. Each of the eleven tracks contributes to a tight narrative structure that shapes its various facets. So it is that Paul Weller's voice glides with striking naturalness on "Sister Moon", while Dorothy Moscowitz's presence on "Turning The Tide" takes on an almost mystical, spiritual quality, to the point you start wondering just how deep the bond between Beautify Junkyards and the United States Of America really runs.

There's an unhinged, contagious magic animating the Portuguese band's new album. Even when they're retreading familiar ground, Beautify Junkyards seem possessed by a fresh exuberance ("Black Grape", "Raridade De Contrastes"); the instrumental choices grow ever bolder and more surreal ("Sonora"), perfect for new musical interactions like the one explored on the extraordinary "Groundstar", a genuine acid-folk gem steeped in hauntology that features Jesse Chandler (Pneumatic Tubes, Midlake and Mercury Rev) and his flute.

The off-kilter, exhilarating groove of the cosmic-psych-dream-pop of "Orbit" and the sonic imagery reminiscent of Mort Garson on "Pulsing Abstraction" are further multicoloured pieces of an intriguing, compelling project that crowns Beautify Junkyards as absolute masters of sampledelia.

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19/09/2024