Albums
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Nonkeen 'Oddments Of The Gamble' (R&S)
BACK AT THE turn of the year we brought you the extraordinary tale of Nonkeen. Three Germans who became friends in the 80s while still separated by the Berlin Wall, they later formed a band and eventually released their debut album ‘The Gamble’, an album of melodic, experimental electronica, in February. ‘Oddments Of The Gamble’, the second album from the trio of Nils Frahm, Frederic Gmeiner and Sepp Singwald, is less of a companion piece and more of a sibling with a different personality; there are occasional hints of the hypnotic, house-flavoured stylings and lo-fi soundscapes that characterised their debut, but here jazz, dark funk, classical and alt-rock play a more starring role. ‘Glow’ is dubby and fidgety and ‘World Air’ is gauzey shoegaze, while the spacey jam of ‘The Journey Of Hello Peter’ is infected with the spirit of soundtrack guru Lalo Schifrin and daubed with demonic bass and electric piano. Nonkeen’s is a uniquely haunting sound – and, they promise, there’s more still to come.
8/10
