Sian Alice Group Troubled, Shaken Etc. (Beautiful Happiness/Social Registry)
4/5
By: Liane Escorza
Troubled, Shaken Etc is the second album by Sian Alice group, a band from the UK formed by a collective of musicians with Sian Ahern, Rupert Clervaux and Ben Crook as the driving gear. Regardless of the buzz generated over their supporting acts for Gang Gang Dance and A Place To Bury Strangers, there is no doubt their strength and their built up success come from within.
The band’s expressivity through minimalist improvisation, experimental electronic exploration and organic intensity is disclosed in this beautiful album, where emotional power and craft seep through angelic vocals, wild arpeggios and expansive rhythmic bounces.
The songs play with repetitive settings unlocked by Sian’s breezy vocals, these becoming the ultimate heartbreaking breadth for Troubled, Shaken Etc over solitary winds swirling on the background.
The techno and poppy approach comes with ‘Vanishing’ and ‘Longstrakt’, the latter hinting on tribal intensity - a take that is much more aggressively displayed on ‘Close To The Ground’, possibly their most accessible and upfront track of all.
Innovative introversion and dreamy snapshots are emphasized in ‘Airlock’ and ‘Through Air Over Water’, yet White is the most surprising of the samples, with soft guitars interlacing in a wonderland dance to swiftly fade away in a cloudy distance.
Troubled, Shaken and deliciously inviting.
Artists in this article: Sian Alice Group
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Sian Alice Group Troubled, Shaken Etc. (Beautiful Happiness/Social Registry)
Rating 4
A very beautiful and moody thing indeed. Often, saying something is a good record to fall asleep to is taken as a derogatory description. When in fact, when deliriously sleepy records like this are...Login to post your comment