11. Conquering Animal SoundOn Floating Bodies
I really liked their first album [Kammerspiel], but this one’s amazing, especially ‘Ultimate Heat Death Of The Universe’. Jamie [Scott] and Anneke [Kampman]’s instrumentation is incredible, it’s so intricate but danceable. Those two are the closest I know to what I imagine people like Aphex Twin are like, and how they work – just constantly taking little things and making this mental landscape out of them.
Anneke writes about science and makes it sound oddly personal and weird. Weird in an amazing way. And her vocal range is unbelievable. Working with Anneke was really interesting, because when she sent back her demos [for ‘Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror’ from Telling The Trees], I really liked what she’d done, but I had no idea what she’d done. She hadn’t changed any of the guitar track I’d sent her, but I didn’t recognise it, because she’d completely ignored the structure, where I’d written in the verses and the choruses.
It’s easy to get lost in it, you’re taken along and spat out at the end. Her intonation, her timing, her spacing: they sound really natural – the second time you hear it. Having been making records for so long, and listening to music for so long, it’s quite difficult to surprise me. Conquering Animal Sound always surprise me.
