Naked Island

This is the debut effort from the duo of Ensemble Economique's tirelessly prolific Brian Pyle and Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier's Félicia Atkinson and it is a great one.  Consisting of two very different long-form pieces, Naked Island offers up a beguiling and hallucinatory mélange of breathy spoken word, dreamy synth drones, clattering percussion workouts, blown-out shoegaze bliss, and spacey abstraction.

Peak Oil

The first side of this record is consumed by the ambitiously titled "Deep, Transcendent Waves of Golden Light," which opens in a dreamlike reverie, as Atkinson whispers in French over a bed of retro-futurist synth drones.  Gradually, however, a muted techno thump fades in and the piece begins to cohere into something more structured and propulsive.  In a general sense, "Waves" has a lot in common with Pyle's recent Ensemble Economique work, as the sizzling, spacey swells are soon bolstered by lush, Romantic, and goth-y synth chords, hallucinatory studio tweaking, and some buried, yet tormented, guitar-like moans.  As much as I enjoy all of that stuff normally, it is presented in a much more effective way on this album than it has been on some of Pyle's solo works.  I have no idea if Atkinson is responsible for the wise addition of the lively, thumping pulse, but her sensuous vocals are most definitely a welcome addition to Pyle's bleary, melancholy strain of psychedelia.

The album's second side is similarly excellent, as "Play it as it Lays" is built upon a wonderfully clattering and dynamic drum beat that is a strong enough hook to carry the entire piece by itself.  Perhaps realizing this, Brian and Félicia opted for far more amorphous/vaporous musical accompaniment this time around, dispensing with words or any kind of prominent chord progression.  Instead, the duo embellish their rolling percussion with a shifting organ drone, hazy swells of wordless vocals, and a shimmering nimbus of peripheral mindfuckery.  Gradually, however, the drums are overtaken by the accumulating washes of burbling and shimmering synths and floating vocals, leading to a lovely and vibrant coda of shapeless, oceanic bliss and buried, roiling noise.

The sole criticism that I can muster is that Naked Island sounds a lot more like a great Ensemble Economique album than something completely new and different, though I am perfectly fine with that state of affairs.  Aside from her vocals on "Deep, Transcendent Waves," it is difficult to tell exactly where Atkinson's influence manifests itself, as her solo work is primarily a somewhat chameleonic strain of layered, phantasmagoric experimentalism.  It is probably safe to say that her presence is responsible for the heightened druggy weirdness swirling around the more structured bits, but whatever she did seems to have brought out the best in both her and Pyle.  For one, both pieces are beautifully constructed compositions that maintain a pleasant momentum and achieve a satisfying dynamic arc.  Secondly, this album is an unusually warm and human one, as far as fringe-y abstract experimentalism goes.  I am not sure if I would state that Naked Island is definitely a career zenith for either Pyle or Atkinson, but a strong case could certainly be made, as this is an absolutely essential release for fans of either.

(Note: I would be remiss if I did not also point out that this record has very cool lenticular cover art.)

• Deep, Transcendent Waves of Golden Light
• Play it as it Lays (excerpt 1)
• Play it as it Lays (excerpt 2)