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(Groovescooter/Creative Vibes)
Sydney-based electronic musician / producer Don Meers’ 2002 debut album on Groovescooter Records ‘Train Noise’ showed him crafting a lush fusion of synthetic and acoustic elements that called upon jazz, world music and cinematic soundtrack elements (informed by his concurrent work in both television and film), and attracted considerable praise upon its release, being soon followed by a companion remix album ‘Track Works’, which showed album tracks being remixed by the likes of Disjunction Reunion and Ens. Three years later, this third album ‘Splint’ represents a significant stylistic step forward for Meers as well as his most diverse collection of tracks yet, with Meer’s own vocals entering prominently into the mix for the first time and adding a new lyrical / pop dimension to his lush, highly-detailed instrumental soundscapes that touches upon his own past experience fronting bands as a lead vocalist. While Meers has self-statedly shied away from adding vocals to his solo artist tracks in the past, ‘Splint’ shows his confident and adept lead vocals taking the forefront for several tracks here, and while the results are perhaps initially a surprise to those more accustomed to his previous instrumental efforts, upon repeated listening they soon fuse smoothly into the darkly-hued cinematic downbeat ambience being conjured up here.
After a brief opening intro track ‘When’ that layers a soft, keening vocoded vocal from Meers that touches upon Cole Porter-tinged aching soul over the distant sound of humming drones and background ambience, first single ‘Dum’ immediately highlights Meers’ new vocal-led pop explorations, with a rich New Romantic-tinged vocal that sits somewhere between Depeche Mode and Japan sliding smoothly over a brooding backing of dark buzzing synths that almost sound like they could have stepped off DM’s classic 1990 ‘Violator’ album, while soft-focus electric slide guitars accent the subtle Bowie-esque twang in Meers’ phrasings. While it’s certainly miles away from the vocal-less beatscapes listeners to Meers’ preceding ‘4.30am’ and ‘Train Noise’ releases will be accustomed to, upon repeated listening, it soon become obvious that all of Meer’s hallmark cinematic attention-to-detail is firmly in place, with the vocal elements serving to amplify the world-weary and melancholy atmospherics, rather than dominate them.
Older track ‘Electronique Mascara’ (previously released as part of a DJ-only Clan Analogue / Groovescooter 12”) makes a reappearance here in a subtly updated ‘2005 Mix’ form and adds a welcome downbeat house pulse to proceedings, with airy 4/4 snares circling beneath jazzy organ keys, slightly eerie odd samples and detached-sounding female chanteuse intonations, before ‘Spy Theme’ takes things down into film-noir-tinged hiphop beats, some colourful retro synth hits crashing their way around a funk-infused bassline while soaring jazz horns and oddly Middle Eastern-tinged instrumentation play off each other. ‘Pocket Full Of Pills’ shows Meers collaborating in the studio with All India Radio’s Martin Kennedy to fashion a slowburning downtempo atmospheric moment that blends slow tribal-sounding drums with slo-motion stretched-out guitar ambience, Paul Maxwell’s pitched-down vocal crawling through the soft-focus blues-tinged atmospheres, while storming highlight track ‘Cinematic’ represents the second chapter of the ongoing story this track sets up, with Meers’ jazz-bop tinged vocal detailing the story of a conman who wins the lottery heading into the sunset in a 1965 Valiant with a ‘pocketful of pills’, as drum and bass rhythms power their way beneath, epic Sun Ra Arkestra-esque horns suddenly bursting into epic life around smoky spy-jazz double bass runs.
Meer’s recent reworking of fellow Groovescooter artist Inga Liljestrom’s ‘Film Noir’ single also makes an appearance here, shuffling swing-jazz cymbals shimmering their way through brooding torch-song strings while Liljestrom’s slightly pitched-down vocal evokes a husky lowered quality reminiscent of Nina Simone, before the achingly poignant All India Radio collaboration ‘Eyes Ahead, Don’t Turn Around’ (previously featured on ‘Evolutionary Vibes 5’) provides one of this album’s absolute standout highlight moments, Chloe Hall’s disembodied-sounding vocal floating over a beatless backdrop of brooding synths and delicate ambient washes, evoking an atmosphere that’s sinister and beautiful in equal measures. Finally, ‘Somebody’ brings this album to a close on a stripped-down acoustic note, with Meers’ world-weary sounding vocal accompanied by simply the strokes of a single acoustic guitar – a fittingly low-key outro.
‘Splint’ is an excellent third album from Don Meers that shows the Sydney-based producer adeptly incorporating the use of vocals into his established highly cinematic blend of electronic and instrumental elements, bringing a heretofore unseen skewed pop presence to the fore and adding to the rich atmosphere generated on many tracks here. Throughout the fourteen tracks gathered here, an extremely diverse range of stylistic reference points are touched upon, ranging from dark spy-jazz loaded drum and bass, through to brooding New Romantic pop and ambient guitar explorations, and perhaps one of Meers’ most significant accomplishments here is the care with which the tracklisting has been sequenced, yielding a listening experience that flows coherently, without semblance of anything approaching a duff moment from start to finish. Definitely worth the wait for this one – fans of the likes of Gotye, Amphibian and Ens should definitely investigate ‘Splint.’
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