340ml
Sorry For The Delay
Sheer Sound, 2008
By Jake Shenker
Four years ago, I was surfing the web looking for new music, and somehow I stumbled across a genre-crossing reggae/dub/jazz quartet from South Africa called 340ml. Their debut album Moving blew me away with its trippy mix of grooves, hooks, and sonic trickery.
And then, for four years, 340ml vanished.
Well, that’s not exactly true. Indie music is alive and well all over the world, and 340ml were busy writing music and playing gigs halfway across the world. They just never told me about it.
Now, after a long wait, 340ml have finally dropped their second album: the aptly titled Sorry For the Delay. After spending some time tracking down the disc, I popped it into my stereo and proceeded to drool over the sonic landscape unravelling before my ears. The disc opens with a creepy music-box melody and a distant, echoing vocal line, but my excitement barely had time to boil before the beat dropped: a slinky dub groove, a wall of tight background vocals, and a knot of slick guitar riffs that pulled my brain into a brand new space.
Simply put, Sorry For the Delay is a staggeringly great album.
After two complete listens I found myself singing every hook, humming every riff, and dancing to every single groove. Somehow, the group seamlessly blends just about every style you can imagine, from reggae and dub to jazz and African grooves, with a pinch of house, classic Parisian, and gypsy thrown in like spices in a fucking epic soup. Spattered throughout are group harmonies that would kick any barbershop quartet’s ass, and the kind of trippy aural illusions you’d expect on a Pink Floyd record.
But what clinches this record for me — aside from the dazzling production — is the songwriting. Moving was a great album, but it was mostly a collection of trippy dub tunes and slick production tricks. The songs on the new record, though, aren’t just virtuosic jam-band grooves — these are catchy songs with pop hooks. Where Moving felt like the experimental output of a great young band, Sorry For the Delay is a mature, well-constructed opus.
Oh, and I almost forgot: the album’s hidden track is a dub rendition of Aha’s “Take On Me”. Yes, I’m serious.
Sorry For the Delay is not yet available in Canada, but the group is working on it. For now, you can visit 340ml’s myspace to hear some tracks, and keep an eye on their (currently under construction) website.
Note:
I was just informed that the Aha cover is not included on the actual CD release, but was a bonus track on the promotional copy I had for review. Sorry guys!
This band sucks! Hanson meets Animal Collective.