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This is the fourth album proper (discounting 1998's
Sevens and Twelves) for the pioneering London-by-way-of-Putney post-rocktronic trio. Doing away for the most part with the sampled second-line beats and found textures prevalent on
EPH, the etudes on
Happiness work the band's collection of quasi-exotic instrumentation (kalimba, xylophone, and glockenspiel to name but three) through subtle digital reconstitution schemes, resulting in a far more intimate and inviting sound field. Cheeky song titles delineate the combinations: the blissed-out "Cut Up Piano and Xylophone" wisely works a reverse-skidding effect, unfortunately ending far before the listener can achieve the intended alpha-state; "Harmonics" strums open chords underneath an involved polyrhythmic pulse built out of sampled acoustic guitar picking; "Tone Guitar and Drum Noise," with its endlessly skidding percussion manages to hip-check Milford Graves and Augustus Pablo simultaneously (not an easy feat). The occasional detour (such as "Drums Bass Sonics and Edit") does little to destroy the reigning pastoral mood. Results overall are nothing short of gorgeous, the lengths gone to pierce a new angle through the rock-trio aegis ultimately pay off in a unique offering, contemporary and ages old.
--Keith Fullerton Whitman
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