REVIEW: Sau - Songs for the Queen EP

Well well - isn't this exciting. I've actually been forwarded some music to review for the first time. I'm hoping it's not the last. This might make the blog seem legit (sporadic as the posts are).

So yes. My first requested review is for the new EP of James Alston - under the alter ego "Sau". My brother had sent me a couple of video clips from a set he'd done in Cardiff recently but of course, I needed to hear the real deal and not muffled crowds and/or my brother going "IT'S LIKE CRYSTAL CASSLES INI".

The five-tracked Songs for the Queen takes you on a little experimental journey, albeit shortlived. Its aura is a sort of yearning frustration, beginning with what I first imagined was a Frank Ocean - "White" vibe for its low tempo and jazzy notation. "Oceana" emits this yearning: "dance with me dance with me / were's the only ones left here" in the "moonlit halls" - certainly sung as if in a moonlit hall which was once full of people. Second track "Kleptocracy" seems more reserved and yet shows that Sau has a lot more potential, with twinkly piano notes layering the tapping drum beats, leading into "Is It Colours", where the EP really evolves. Here we could compare Sau's stuff to the likes of Distance in terms of rhythm, together with a gradual crescendo reaching a climax and sick chord change around the 3:30 mark. Penultimate "Breakfast at Drake's" introduces acoustic guitars and what I *assume* is a fingerpicked G chord on top of a rhythmic wood block tapping sound (you know those blocks of wood you'd whack in primary school during "music"? Like that but a bit more in time).

Sau left the best 'til last with final track "MPS2", lyrically as well as instrumentally. On top of light organ chords are James' more emotional and imagerial vocals, comparing his subject to some some sort of prized memento or jewel, perhaps? - and it's unclear to me whether this is good or bad with its "dime a dozen" face, and yet "I need your antique touch / your relic skin on fresh meat".

All in all, I'm really intrigued to see what else Sau has to offer in the future. Keep an eye out for a couple of sets around Cardiff soon.

You can listen/download (name your price) here.

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If you'd like me to review a single/EP/LP or a show you're playing - let me know!
(niaewebb@googlemail.com)