It’s firstly in the name. The band name, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve is something that has been missing from music for a while, the audacity that artists can use within names – for too long they have succumbed to the iTunes era, sticking to colourless norms as opposed to the downright ludicrous. Obviously, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve has a subtle dual meaning in the name, however, we won’t venture too far into that. After all, that is what your imagination is there for, right?

I’m sceptical of psychedelia and anything that uses the word ‘trip’ nowadays. It’s such a loose term that rests so heavily upon lethargic publicity stunts claiming how you are going to ‘trip’ whilst you listen to this – no you won’t, nobody trips purely off the aural experience of listening to a piece of music through a Macbook speaker system. Furthermore, anything that shows a slight glimmer of colour, or a slight paisley texture is suddenly branded as psychedelic. If we take this notion for fact, the bloody Dunelm sofa selection might be psychedelic. In fact, my gran’s paisley curtains are psychedelic and that explains why she has been sat in her front room for the last five years losing her marbles – at first we thought growing old brought the symptoms of dementia but no, she must act this way because she has been sat there tripping her nuts off all this time. Alas, when I first began to read about Erol Alkan and Richard Norris’ return to music, some eight years on from their previous work together, I was suspicious due to the overbearing use of ‘trip’ in the press release.

Alkan in particular has lead a pretty obtuse career thus far, falling down various musical sinkholes whether this was into the world of mid-00s nu-rave, remixing pieces of music by the likes of Klaxons, Digitalism and Hot Chip, remixing the work by Australian psychedelic(oops)-prog-elecontric-rock titans Tame Impala, or being the pioneer of London’s infamous Trash parties. He has had his fingers in that many pies that he no longer knows what flavour they come out, so much so that he has enough ‘DJ of the Year’ awards to collapse any soul’s mantelpiece. His partner in crime is the renowned musician David Norris, best known for his time with The Grid and Time and Space Machine. Now, it begins to surface as to where people may get the psychedelic concept from.

The Soft Bounce, as opposed to their debut album, as a duo is an album full of originals rather than re-workings of other musician’s material. The psychedelic tangent that the band seem to be plugged upon is notoriously vague as the album draws from Americana, Latin and techno more than anything, the only concepts of mood strike where the album veers freely between the light and the darkness. Opening with ‘Delicious Light’, it is a buoyant journey through, well, you guessed it – the light parts of the album. If anything, it acts as the utopian beginning that sets the backdrop to the first half of The Soft Bounce. Particularly leaning on the ambient works that both Norris and Alkan have acquainted themselves with in the past, it cuts between the high-end brashness of 80s-styled drum loops and Orbital climaxes. To call it a journey is clichéd as it ultimately attaches a pre-disposed notion of psychedelia, what it is, is a fluent ride. It utilises dynamics to its best effect and with the way it builds into ‘Iron Age’, it gives a serene flow to the musicality.

‘Iron Age’ though punts you in the chest where ‘Delicious Light’ previously let you dream – it kicks in with a torrent of guitar and a sea of white noise, something that Death In Vegas have become particularly acquainted with. It’s awash with drops in rhythm, tempo and jerking changes in instrumentation. It fluctuates as a song leaving vocals to eradicate the white noise in isolation. This is as close as Beyond The Wizards Sleeve really get to masquerading as a guitar band on The Soft Bounce – it’s a quirky genre hopscotch on the album that marvellously pays off. ‘Creation’ is another dramatic nose-dive in genres picking up the scraps of Latin and funk. Alkan and Norris go slightly lighter on the electronics, treating the organic sounds of thundering bass and steadfast drums with more attention and care. Their musical devolution prevails as the duo find a tenderness outside of their comfort zones.

‘Door To Tomorrow’ is the buzzkill that you kind of anticipated, the three previous tracks laid the cloud of optimism before the crushing gloom comes four tracks in. Nevertheless, it sincerely harks towards a Pink Floyd era ‘See Emily Play’; there’s a menace there that strikes from the further reach of Alkan’s mind’s eye – after so long in the music business, he obviously has a canny awareness of how to manipulate emotion and mood to toy with it. It is the first glimpse that the pair have really shown towards any 60s-nostlagia, it is an exceptionally original documentation of the time however, giving it a contemporary facelift. ‘Diagram Girl’ was the first taste of The Soft Bounce that we were to receive, it glimmers as it rides across Venice Beach in the late 70s, it’s clad in neon with it’s synth throttle below lustful vocals. The slow, soulful number comes in the form of ‘Black Crow’. If you shut your eyes tight, it fits as a better James Bond song than Adele or Radiohead could ever have put together, Alkan’s electronic workings flit across, swell, and bolster every piece of music throughout the song. It’s resoundingly apocalyptic in how it builds but, let’s take a step back. You begin to scratch your head somewhat here, we are now six tracks in but none of which seem to tie any overarching concept together. Where do we go from here?

The lassoo of Alkan and Norris now drags you back to where you began with ‘Tomorrow, Forever’, the washing surf of ambience and all things heavenly comes back to claim you once more – perhaps this is the notion of psychedelia, the complete thrusting around of a musical spectrum? It’s seven minutes of it this time though, it’s a long instrumental, it’s quaint in the way it delivers, but does it add? It cuts through the middle and arguably stands as the elephant in the room on the album, awkward and lumbering but dividing the light and dark.

The rest of the journey cuts and sways, the title track of the album falls into that same 80s neon clad desolation as ‘Diagram Girl’ but with glimmers of Portishead. This time the retro tinge looks at the sparsity of Coney Island’s theme park as opposed to the sun kissed beaches. It feels like the comedown somewhat. ‘Finally First’ continues this stumbling direction. Earlier in the album the juggernaut of Alkan and Norris took one firm foot forward after the other which certainly places the album as something top heavy. Maybe this is the point that Beyond The Wizards Sleeve want you to embrace though, the velocity before the calm – as a listener though, the drop in dynamic is disappointing leaving you feeling a little empty rather than impressed towards the end.

You can’t help but feel slightly narked by the whole process, it may have worked better as two EPs as opposed to one full length LP. It stood strongest at the start. The split between the melodic and upbeat beginning and the drugged, drunken tail end does not so much lead for a point of initiative and creativity but more dull laziness which leads to it becoming quite a frustrating final 20 minutes.

The spoken word of ‘Third Mynd’ lathers this notion of psychedelia upon you in a sickly manner, discussing themes of synesthesia and the visualisation of music – the rattling of the mind’s cage. It is abhorrent in how it points to all the obvious reference points of psychedelia. Just when you thought the duo had done something exceptionally clever, they fall upon exceptionally cliched and diluted notions of psychedelia.

Overall, it feels slightly confused as an album, it points to various moments in our past and various musical histories. This is something personified in the array of vocals that cover the album, from The Mystery Jets’ Blaine Harrison through to Euros Childs (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci), Jane Weaver, Holly Miranda and Hannah Peel. There is so much going on musically in what the group want to achieve, there is no real coherence to the album. The majority of the songs on the album however are vast and deep musical explorations, each fantastic in its own right but you don’t feel at all organised with the listening. It’s a frustrating album as it starts so well, even when it grows confused, the general musicality is great for the majority but where it stumbles is in the final third.
Tom Churchill

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