Caution: not a real circuit board!
"Progressive fusion" group We Are Kin hail from Manchester, and, though they're now a quartet, the core lineup of Pandora-era We Are Kin was originally just a duo - drummer Gary Boast, and multi-instrumentalist (and current BEM team member) Daniel Zambas. It's worth mentioning that this is technically a re-recording. The original version of the album was released as a download in late 2014, and David Elephant liked what he heard so much that he and Dan concocted a scheme to record a new version with bassist Dave Hopkinson, singer Lauren Smith, and guitarist Adam McCann. Thus was born the version you can find on Bandcamp today.
Pandora was We Are Kin's first full-length album, and it set a strong tone for their work: a firm, surprisingly deep conceptual base, a coherent, original sound that wove its pieces together expertly and near-effortlessly, and a set of smooth, inexorable songs that neither rush nor drag. Pacing in music is deceptively important, and few people get it quite as right as these guys.
From the soaring, wistful 'Tides of Midnight' to the powerfully disjointed 'Weight of the World' to Hannah Cotterill's beautiful vocals on 'Soul', Pandora displays an impressive range as well as quality songwriting, and most tracks stand just as well alone as they do as part of the wider album. My personal favourite piece on Pandora, though, is 'The Speech', a stripped-down piano line supporting a superb spoken-word performance by poet Alex Dunedin, who also wrote the lyrics for much of the album. It gets... different towards the end.
Seriously, just give this one a listen and you'll see what I mean.
It'd be remiss to talk about We Are Kin without mentioning their live shows. Anyone who caught the Evening of BEM in Manchester earlier this year will testify that We Are Kin put on a magnificent live show. While I've yet to watch them in concert myself, the live footage I've seen shows a tight, well-realised performance with just the right amount of verve.
Reviews of Pandora were consistently pretty damn good. The Progressive Aspect's Phil Lively called it "a mature and well realised album", and our friends in Europe seemed to like it too - in Germany, BetreutesProggen and Babyblaue both gave it generally positive reviews. (More on what they actually say when I can get hold of Stefan. My German's still a little rusty.) Their second album, ... and I know..., was similarly well-received (and might well be worth its own From the Vaults episode someday!)
If this tickles your fancy and you'd like your very own copy of Pandora, we've still got plenty of copies over at the webstore, now at the reduced price of just £5 for a digital copy! Think of it as a kind of... um... late-bird discount. Sure. Let's go with that.
Status Update
Fukushima Surfer Boys continues to be a thing that is going to happen. It's not time to turn off those hype jets yet - and preorders are still open!
In case you missed it, there was a brand new Lab 558 very recently, featuring the exclusive first play of a new track from Charlie Cawood's soon-to-be-released solo album! If you've not heard it yet, give it a listen. If you have, give it another listen. Can't hurt.
It's Summer's End this weekend, so David and Martin are both living it up in questionably sunny Chepstow, leaving Huw in charge of the operation.
What could possibly go wrong?
Pictured: BEM HQ.
Catch you all next week, if there's still a BEM left to report from!
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