Leander - Pass Fail
Sometimes when you listen to an album, you immediately realise that it is a product of the surroundings in which it was created; such is the case with the debut album from Berlin’s electronic folk duo Leander. A freezing barn in the countryside surrounding the German capital might not be the ideal location in which to create their opus, but it certainly has paid dividends for the Kranholdt brothers; as the bulk of Pass Fail’s eleven tracks resonate with a rustic, bucolic breeziness which is both ambient and engaging. Kicking off with the beautifully ethereal title track, this is an album of delicately constructed tunes which seamlessly splice edgy, electronica with hazy, laid-back melancholia to create an intricate and wistful collection of songs; which will provide the ideal accompaniment to the post-club comedown with is its fragile, trancelike sound.
Following on from the ghostly opening track, ‘Idaho’ is a shining example of Leander at their best, combining sombre minor piano chords with evocations of Talk Talk’s minimalist masterpiece The Spirit of Eden; it is interjected and energised with Aphex Twin style loops before calmly introducing lucid strings and soft arpeggio guitar. Much of the album’s material contains similarly well structured and thoughtfully crafted arrangements; the brothers appear to have a canny knack of carefully selecting the appropriate instrumentation to provide a glove-like fit to each track. This is wonderfully illustrated on ‘No League’, beginning with spluttering, hissing tape loops; the track builds steadily, gradually introducing layers of sound piece by piece, creating a captivating and mesmeric wall of sound before reaching a colossal and shattering climax. Perhaps better still is ‘108’, beginning slowly with sombre staccato style piano it abruptly transforms itself into an angsty, angular attack.
Similarly, ‘Sliding Drifting Sinking’ pulsates and burns with a sense of urgency and an intensity which places it gloriously out of sync with the understated nature of much of the other material showcased here. Equally contradictory is ‘Forked’, an abstract acoustic number; which with its hint of Eastern-mysticism sounds very similar to the Beta Band at their most enchanting. However, these diversions do not de-stabilise the album as a whole and Leander’s eclecticism is one of the undoubted strengths of the record, helping to create a superbly self-assured and confident debut. The album closes with the gorgeously uplifting ‘Four Days’, it is an effectively alleviating end to a most alluring electronic album. Record label related difficulties have delayed the release of this excellent album on several occasions, no doubt causing much concern to Leander themselves. However, the quality and immediacy of much of the bands material is such that one hopes that they will not endure similar hitches in future; as ‘Pass Fail’ is undoubtedly grade A material.