Embrace The Point of No Return is the new release from Amongst The Pigeons (ATP) – AKA electronic artist Daniel Parsons, his first full album since 2021’s Silence Will Be Assumed As Acceptance. While earlier ATP releases had a lighter touch, this album was recorded in a darker time as Daniel wrestled with anxiety. Along with counselling Daniel turned to running as a positive effect on his mental health and this allowed him to listen to a lot of techno and house to help eat the miles which in, in turn, influenced the writing of tracks for this album.
Embrace… has a darker feel to Daniel’s earlier material, and these ten tracks are all instrumental where he has used guest vocalists on previous releases. There are sparks and crystal flashes that flicker out over low swells and spongy synths that often give the feel of a more marshmallowy Kraftwerk. The whole album harks back to the early days of synthesised music with tight concentrations of bleeps and bloops, cascading arpeggios that conjure up music by The Orb and 808 State and tin can digital percussion pleasantly rotating in the background on tracks like ‘Nightshade’ and ‘This Is More Than I Signed Up For’.
There’s the playful sense of Yellow Magic Orchestra on ‘And Then We Dance Again’, and ‘The Lights Shine Bright On The Horizon’ as well as the brooding John Carpenter-esque ‘Trespass’ and ‘Who Do You Have To Go Home For?’. This Amongst The Pigeons album has allowed Daniel to lean on his influences whilst keeping a tight grip on the writing and production so that each track always holds your interest by constantly developing its electronic motifs.
Give a man birdfeed and he will have enough for a meal but teach him how to grow birdseed or operate a bank of synthesisers and VST instruments and he will have enough to keep producing fine collections of electronic songs.
Pigeon facts (taken from One Kind Planet and Mental Floss):
- They are one of only a small number of species who are able to recognise themselves in the ‘mirror test’.
- As well as using their internal magnetic compass to navigate they also use landmarks such as signposts and roads and have been known to change direction at junctions.
- They have great hearing and can detect sounds at lower frequencies than humans so can hear distant storms and volcanoes
- Both sexes take incubating their eggs.
- They can fly up around 6000ft and average speeds of around 78 mph (although the fastest recorded speed was closer to 93mph).
- Both Charles Darwin and Nikolai Tesla kept pigeons.
- They saved thousands of lives in both world wars by delivering crucial messages.
- Pigeons and doves make up the species columbiformes, the same group the Dodo belonged to.
Amongst The Pigeons socials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp
If you suffer from stress or anxiety you can find out ways to cope with this on the NHS website.
Review by Paul F Cook
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