We may be backtracking into the last century a bit here, but you remember mix tapes. Don’t you? Throwing down your favourite tracks with primitive technology that back then seemed like the future had come to your bedroom and honing a knack for squeezing your choice cuts snugly onto one side of a C90 to suit your mood, or just to force your superior tastes that week onto a mate. And right now it is summer – c’mon, the sun’s out some of the time – which is as good a theme as any. So what would you have on yours? A bit of REM (the optimistic end of)? A bit of rootsy hip hop, Jurassic 5 maybe, some harmless 60s mix, some samba lovin’ Fun Lovin Criminals, some Beck, some Beasties? Yeah, sounds alright doesn’t it. Nothing too heavy. You can almost feel the warmth.
But AM60 didn’t make a tape. They jammed, then they made an album. And instead of wobbly second-generation recordings we get an enjoyably eclectic, beat-driven collection of tunes and vocal flourishing, wide influences worn proud on their short sleeves and a consistent streak of old fashioned happiness that is a pure joy to take in. Now, you could end up mistaking this as Mackie of FLC in kooky side project situation, seeing as he’s perched merrily on the drum stool throughout. But don’t, he was theirs all along. Huey nabbed him a few years back when AM60 did the FLC support slot and now he returns because, it seems, he can.
Take ‘Tonite’s the Nite’ as an all round example of what this record is capable of. Beginning with a guitar fuzz swiped straight off Pearl Jam’s ‘Vs’ it reverberates down to what sounds like Princess Superstar and E of Eels knocking out a faux-romantic educational segment for Sesame Street and then whipping up to a Belly-esque climactic shriek, before doing it over again. All in 2 minutes 19 seconds. It’s heartbeat hip-hop beats and jazz bass, acoustic pop licks and exotic guitars, simple rhymes and seasoned voices. ‘Phat Girl’ is the Eels in hoola skirts and a frisky mood, ‘Big As The Sky’ has summer one-hit-wonder written all over it in the best way, ‘We Belong Together’ is the best song Belle & Sebastian havn’t written yet and the Jurassic 5 sounding ‘Treble, Bass and Midrange’ has a chant and bass-line to crack open the beers to at sunset. Fun and near enough faultless, give or take a chunk of grinding quirkiness. You can press stop now.