Whereas many albums are connected through a sonic signature or a generic connection, it is less the sound that is the recognizable through-line of Do Not Be Afraid and more a feeling. Sure, you could dust for creative fingerprints and prove that these songs are all connected. But it is the sense of pathos and slight air of melancholy, something wistful, reflective, and nostalgic that hangs in the air above them, which, for me, is what turns this from a collection of songs into an album.
Through numerous bands – The Family Machine, The Daisies and Medal – Jamie Hyatt has justifiably earned a position as a leading figure in the more interesting, underground and experimental realms of the Oxford music scene, and so the arrival of the debut album of his latest project, bedd, has been a much anticipated event.
“Everything’s Coming Around” immediately shows us that any fears of Bedd’s first long-playing platter not meeting our collective expectations to be unfounded. (Oh, ye of little faith!) As it ebbs and flows between lush soundscapes and an almost emptiness, shimmering sonics and raw sounds, understatement and anthemics, it is a reminder that Hyatt is also a film score composer, and here his two worlds of orchestration and pop meet and merge perfectly.
The full reveal of the sonic spectrum is clear when “Walkie No Talkie’s” stark, futuristic, intimate, and sonorous minimalism is followed by “Paulie’s a Bum,” the sound of an indie anthem occasionally exploding into searing shoegaze squalls.
And then there are songs such as “Party on Dude (Endless)” that start in the more familiar realm of the bucolic ballad, seem to get infected by some strange mutant electronica, and then usher in a funk-bass-driven party tune. If that is both brilliant and brilliantly unpredictable, I don’t know what is.
We always knew that bedd’s debut would be something special, but the band has outdone even those high expectations. A masterful first album if ever there was one.
