(October 2009) Jesse Somfay might be Canada’s primary ambient-shoegaze-techno fusioneer, but the entry to the arena of his second full-length is hobbled by a redundant bunch of blather: “Some stories leave room for interpretation and A Catch in the Voice intends to be one where the experiencer is the catalyst for new meaning to be formed,” goes the blurb; and further, “For each person, a new story is created within them – and only them – and remains there subject only to external interpretation. As with all perception, there is no way to tell if we are all experiencing the exact same thing, and this album builds upon that and will ultimately be a personal and individual experience for every listener.” (this from jessesomfay.com) To which it might be observed that this is empty verbiage stating what is simply a truism – that all meaning, whether in relation to music or any other form of art or communications, is negotiable by each individual according to shifting factors of context, personal experience, associations etc. Fortunately Somfay’s music soon blots out the blurb blah, so, having liberated the chest, let’s pass over it and on to consider the work under review.
Archipel’s promo team is right about one thing, though: “Boards of Canada working with James Holden or Minilogue” works as a good shorthand for the sound of Somfay. And, if we want to play the cross-breed referencing game, other composites occur along the way: ‘Dominik Eulberg-meets-Ulrich Schnauss,’ or “Nathan Fake-vs-M83,” or how about “The Field ft. Tim Hecker” (fun, ain’t it!). A Catch in the Voice finds Somfay mining a rich vein of bliss-grooves and swoon-scapes over two discs. Disc 1 is a treasure trove of largely beatless ambient-referencing hypnagogia, while Disc 2 flirts more with minimal techno. It’s not Techno in banging 4-on-the-floor mode, though there are enough thumps and bumps along the way to keep the booty shaking while the brain zones out. Nor is it Ambient like in the Eno/Budd chambers, for that matter. Beats tend to drift in and out, bubbling up and subsiding to consort with the fuzzed-out and marbled melodies. You can hear it best on the chiming dreampop epics, “Hypnogogii” and “Good Morning Strange Light,” the latter a more ‘organic’ less OCD variant on The Field’s loop-obsessive MBV-fuelled indietronica. These long-form tracks are punctuated by shorter mood pieces – like “Brave Late Fade” and “Folding Ghosts Into Origami Stars,” or the echoing delight of guitartone-haze and reverb-glaze that is “Something Smallest.” These are butterfly-chasing daydream doodle that provide more reflective pause, like the sketchbook shorts interleaving the more substantial tracks on BoC’s albums. Elsewhere Somfay is more expansive with his timbral freeplay, as on the warped “Cuckoo Spit” slithering through sub-aqueous Delay-lines, or the detuned Kosmische of “Irradian Irradiant,” tapping into the recent fad for faux-New Age space age sounds (cf. Oneohtrix Point Never), 70s sci-fi synth wibbling woozily through shimmering bit-clouds.
In the past, Somfay may have been open to criticism for a certain naive over-prettiness, verging on cheesy-tweeness, but here it all seems more mediated, and its spangly star-gazing winsomeness becomes a virtue – a fresh-faced fairy-tale beauty that is refreshing after a parade of cartoon Dark post-techno and dubstep practitioners. Whether or not this is your bag, it is undeniable that Somfay has honed his repertoire of recording techniques to perfection, achieving a sonic identity that is recognisably his own, and A Catch in the Voice makes for a genuinely intoxicating couple of hours listening.
A Catch in the Voice is out now on Archipel. [Listen / Purchase
