Formed at the beginning of 2015, Sydney-based duo Ben Gumbleton and Sam Croft, otherwise known as Boo Seeka, met and instantly wrote the song ‘Kingdom Leader’. Two weeks later they were on a national tour and haven’t looked back since. Fast forward two years and the Aussie pair’s debut is an emotionally driven 11 tracks of intoxicating soulful vocal harmonies, percussion-led instrumental and rich atmospherics.

Produced by long-time collaborator Ian Pritchett, Never Too Soon paints rich images and places you in the experiences the compositions stemmed from: “This album best reflects our recent life experiences, encapsulating all we've encountered over the past two and a half years. Our recording process for the album followed no structure; we recorded vocals in car parks, tour buses and our studios in Sydney. One vocal loop was recorded into an iPhone on stage in a theatre in America. Ultimately, every idea and piece of music we had come together in my bedroom studio, we then took it to our producer Ian Pritchett's garage studio and that's where the songs came to life,” Croft explained.

Opener ‘Does This Last’ steadily builds into layers of synthetic soundscapes with almost-conversational vocals coming from Gumbleton. Proceedings are then taken up a notch as an instantaneous bassline carries ‘Humans’ along before the rhythmic beats cut in and lifts the song into a more inspiring tone.

A reverberated piano line, echoed vocals and samples then take the reigns for the catchy ‘Argo Misty’. Meanwhile, ‘Gold Sail’ and ‘Brooklyn’ follow a far more standard template than what preceded them, but they are no less captivating. Inspired by DJ Shadow's album Endtroducing…, ‘Turn Up Your Light’ is then a heartfelt love song that demonstrates a rawer side to the pair’s musicianship. Earlier single ‘Oh My’ will surely be a live favourite with its anthemic pop chorus, melodious vibes and enthusiastic vocals, whilst ‘You and Me’ will get your feet moving when the arpeggiated, deep synthetic cut takes over.

The groove-laden ‘Calm Symphony’ then finalises the LP in tranquil fashion to cap off what is a beautiful album in which each track seems to formulate into something fresh, new, and unexpected. There is a sense that the pair are still fully forming their definitive sonic level- understandable considering their short lifespan – but they can be safe in the knowledge that they’ve already manufactured an intoxicating LP of rich sonic textures, delicate percussion, impassioned vocals that retains a rich emotive core throughout.

Paul Hill

Website: booseeka.com
Facebook: facebook.com/booseeka
Twitter: twitter.com/Boo_Seeka