Snap Ant – ‘This Is Jut’ (Invicta Hi-Fi) Released 10/10/05

 

Improbably, Snap Ant uses no samples on this record, preferring to play and sing every note himself, yet still renders soundscapes that most producers only think they can dream of. A triumph for do-it-yourself purists over cut-and-paste recyclers? Whatever, the album sits perfectly comfortably between the organic and the electronic, taking all the most interesting bits from Super Furry Animals, Air, Gorillaz, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Cornelius, slapping them all around, and pulling out a quirkily brilliant and original piece of work.

 

The record opens with ‘Jut’, a distorted electro-mash-up, like Daft Punk waking up in a cold sweat next to Aphex Twin.  Soon we’ve funked our way into the Rhodes-tinged bossa-nova dub of ‘Larva Stall’.  ‘Berewind’ and ‘She Makes All Sense’ are lush pastures of meandering basslines, softly crooned vocals, ethereal layered guitar, strings and organ. ‘Saviour Piece’ (from EP ‘Execute The Ping’) should have been a Super Furries B-side.  The basslines and vocoder hint at the paranoia that is to come.

 

With ‘You Make Me Basic’ we are dropped right back into the chasms of Snap Ant’s mind.  Demonic vocals are sliced in two by beautiful falsettos as if by a sushi chef’s knife while edgy guitars and bleeps tussle with organs like an irresistible force and an immovable object.  Recent single ‘Grumpy Nymph’ picks up where the dark side left off, charting the fantastic self-destruction of a nymphomaniac, better than Gorillaz at their funkiest. The result is a journey through a land full of surprises, every turn throwing open either a spectacular vista or a new summit to test the resolve of the hardened traveller. Let’s hope the trip has only just begun.