Released via the Leaf label at the beginning of July, Snapped Ankles have made a well-anticipated return just three years since their last album, Stunning Luxury. After the success of their debut and second studio album, it’s noted from here onwards things can often turn south. But in Forest Of Your Problems, Snapped Ankles have gathered their work into a track-list of ten addictive dance cuts.
Introductory ‘Forest of Your Problems’ starts off very ambient, but soon forges into chopped and screwed electronica. Frontman Paddy Austin is doing his usual tricks on vocals and the rest blissfully follows. Across Forest Of Your Problems the group take you along an increasingly knotted string of affairs. As you cross through various stages of electronica, post-punk tendencies, and everything in-between, you find yourself intertwined by the technicolored synths, experimental drumbeats, and spoken word vocals.
Spoken word third track, ‘Shifting Basslines of the Cornucopians’ is a sturdy yet exhilarating journey – a common theme spread across this album. “It’s a great time to be alive,” bellows Paddy Austin and somehow these words exude both where have you been for the past year vibes with just a glimpse of zeal, as we’re just days into ‘normality.’ Snapped Ankles’ Forest Of Your Problems is a project of reassurance that we will dance again.
Noted for their connection with the forest land, haywire mid-point, ‘Susurrations (In The Forest)’ is a suspenseful four minutes of just crazed synth noise. From the album title to the instrumentation itself, Snapped Ankles have embodied their love for the forest more than anything in this record. Embodying the unknown, creature-like element of what lives in-between the trees, the group experiment with tons of warped electronica across this project amongst splashes of post-punk rhapsody.
A common theme woven across this album is surprise. Just as you think you know what direction they’re heading in, they take an absolute detour. Quoting Harold Shand from the 80s classic, The Long Good Friday, Austin mutters, “I’m not a politician, I’m a businessman,” before a sudden harmony of daunting key work. Shapeshifting the entire direction of this track, ‘Rhythm is Our Business’ is an ascending journey of complete craze.
Across this album the group show signs of influence from The Fall and The Stranglers. In an interview the group also mention the likes of David Behrman, and Shangaan Electro amongst a handful of other artists. And as you make your way through this record, all of the above start to make much more sense.
Concluding with the tranquil instrumental ‘Forest Of Your Problems (Outro)’, Snapped Ankles finish this journey amongst ambient sounds. There’s something about this ending that feels so tropical and soothing, as you’ve glazed through a rush of some of their most accelerating work across their career path thus far. ‘Forest of Your Problems (Outro)’ offers a friendly, until next time. A great third studio album.
