2LP, Gatefold [pias] (2018) EU When James Ford and Jas Shaw met at Manchester University in the late 1990s, they never imagined they'd end up creating a human synthesiser. But in their very earliest musical experiments together, something was set in motion which would lead to one of the most unusual careers in British music: one which has seen their creative mission transform again and again, inventing entirely new formats for music-making along the way. So perhaps the weaving of rich layers of human vocal tonalities sung by The Deep Throat Choir into the techno framework of their fifth studio album Murmurations isn't quite such an unexpected turn of events. In fact, they've been connecting the human voice with electronic sound since they first founded the band Simian with Simon Lord and Alex McNaughten. Simian was, in Jas's words, about "trying to show you could make band music with songs and harmonies but be into Autechre too". Named after "Simeon", the home-made early synth rig of early electronic experimentalists The Silver Apples, the band combined Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies with hypnotic Krautrock rhythms, cosmic analogue synthesiser swooshes and an unmistakeable clubber's sense of groove - and somehow in the middle of all that managed to find something extraordinarily accessible.
