Matt Harding’s debut album, 2001’s ‘Tomorrow’ was an eclectic relaxant, unhurried visions, comfortable electronica and easily obtained victories in variety abounded. Nothing that he needed seemed too far out of reach, everything was a simple matter of fact, it was a haven of sloth with an active mind. And everything that applied then applies now. Only he seems even more chilled these days, time in-between albums could no doubt be plotted on a descending graph. The commitment he talks of in the title must be that of shutting out just about everything and monging beautifully, which turns out to be a worthy ethic. Primal Scream and their ‘Vanishing Point’-era blissed out dub tendencies were evoked often on his debut and while that does remain to some extent (take, appropriately enough, ‘You’ve Been Here Before’) this time the urgency that sometimes encouraged has evaporated in a lazy smoke trail.
This time around he’s like an increasingly organic Four Tet, the source of a light waterfall of folktronica (or just, in the case of some like ‘Afternoons In December’, pure hippie folk, with tambourines and Elliott Smith-esque plucked guitar). ‘Come My Way’ is gentle lapping waves of strummed psychedelic guitar and “doo-doo” harmonies, like Super Furry Animals sat circular and cross-legged around a drum machine. ‘Our Conversations’ is tip-toe piano and the sound of rain and is delightfully tranquil. The hugely reverberating ‘What I Meant To Say’ is the sound of him singing his lonely confessions alone in a candlelit church with unobtrusive beats twinkling peacefully all around. A truly gorgeous album worthy of his commitment and yours.
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