Simian Mobile Disco – 'Unpatterns' review
The speed with which dance music mutates means that even relatively new acts like Simian Mobile Disco – their debut is less than five years old – feel like establishment figures. Accordingly, the choice they face on their fourth album is whether to try and keep up, or stick to a trademark sound and risk sounding more outdated with every passing release.
Disconcertingly, Unpatterns tries to do both, with mixed results. In the slow-and-steady corner, A Species Out Of Control is drab electro that is unlikely even to have sounded exciting in 2007, but the gleaming whooshes of Interference shimmer among its woozy synth lines with a pleasing power that makes up for its obviousness. Among the predictable though is the subtly innovative – in particular the soulful, post-dubstep atmospherics of Seraphim – but in terms of progress, the hotchpotch of styles makes for a frustrating listen: enough of Unpatterns suggests that SMD have the chops to push their sound forward, but its timidity frequently feels lazy.
6/10
