Simon Bookish recommends… “Blue Imelda” by Final Fantasy
“My friend Owen [Pallett] made an EP called Spectrum 14th Century, which is definitely one of my favourite things from this year. For me, it’s representative of a fantastic new development in pop music, a kind of new ambition. There’s a lot of it about at the moment – musicians with big ideas, resourcefulness, intelligence, some daring. ‘Is anything more beautiful than failure?’, in the words of the first song on the EP. Spectrum is concerned with a fictional mediaeval society and its deity, who is also called Owen, and his ambivalent relationship with his worshippers. ‘Every morning I listen to confessionals; I don’t give a shit about the bulk of it, still, I keep it professional.’ So it has this sci-fi Canterbury Tales lyric and is set to the strangest, lushest music, all soaring strings, acidic woodwind, steel drums and field recordings of birdsong. It’s challenging and funny and beautiful, so I recommend you buy the whole EP.”
Simon Bookish is the stage name of Leo Chadburn, a classically trained composer, vocalist and performer based in London. His album Everything/Everything is out now on Tomlab and has been nominated for TLOBF’s Album of the Year. Click here to vote.
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