– THE MILITARY COUP –

Shards is a sort of vocal supergroup made up of “composers, instrumentalists, folk musicians and teachers” all brought together by singer, composer and producer Kieran Brunt.

Combining voices, synths and percussion, the group was initially assembled by London’s Barbican Centre to provide choral support for Nils Frahm and, following the success of that project, has since gone on to collaborate with others, most notably Michael Price on his recent LP Tender Symmetry.

Unrest is a track that somehow manages to evoke both traditional folk chanting and the autotuned, percussive modern electronic vocal stylings made popular by the likes of Bjork, Ash Koosha and Tanya Tagaq.

It’s intense, endlessly interesting and totally inexplicable; a new lesson in the versatility and virtuosity of the human voice.

It comes from the group’s debut album Find Sound which is out now through the ever-inventive, ever-exciting Erased Tapes.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX

AFRICA EXPRESS: MORALS
DEF SOUND: HIDE N SEEK
BLUE LAB BEATS: STAND UP
MARO: WHY

P.S. You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –