- A gripping set of demos outlining what Broadcast's unfinished last album could have been, with all the duo's brilliance intact.
- In the two decades they were active, British group Broadcast had unlocked the secret of how to make songs that were nostalgic, retro, modern and futuristic, all at the same time. Their music was a mix of swirling Krautrock organ chords, strange psychedelic folk, girl group harmonies and early electronic music. Those instrumentals were graced by Trish Keenan's beloved and uniquely-hushed vocals, whose lyrics were often inspired by writers both fantastical (H.G. Wells) and poetic (Gertrude Stein). Keenan passed away in 2011 from pneumonia at the age of 42, and the group disbanded shortly afterwards. They left behind a short, strange and utterly singular discography. Outside of a compilation of their early material, a soundtrack released posthumously after Keenan's death and a collaboration with the Focus Group, Broadcast's core studio album discography consists only of three albums released between 2000 and 2005. After Keenan passed, Broadcast cofounder James Cargill noted that she left behind a lot of tapes: "The next thing I release with Trish on it will be more like a monument and a tribute to her rather than this obsessive thing I used to have about making albums."
Though it arrives 13 years after Cargill's initial statement, Spell Blanket is that monument. It's a 36-track collection of demos of music intended for their follow-up to 2005's Tender Buttons (their last non-collaborative album). Had it been released on a proper Broadcast album, opener "The Song Before the Song Comes Out" might have been cleaned up, fleshed out, performed over an acoustic guitar. But here, in its raw form, it's the sketch of a song, like you're watching Keenan improvise the words and melody while she's walking around her neighbourhood. There's an intimacy here that compliments Broadcast's already close, cosy sound.
Even the shorter songs bear fruit. The 30-second instrumental "My Marble Eye" bears some resemblance to fellow Warp act Boards Of Canada, who were perhaps the most comparable to Broadcast—despite not having a vocalist—because both groups used electronics to explore the secrets of the mundane and the nostalgic. Elsewhere, "I Am the Bridge," the last song here with vocals," feels eerie following her death: "I am the bridge between the living / Through my eyes and through my giving."
The majority of Spell Blanket's songs actually feel almost finished, ready to be cleaned up and packaged into an album. Had "March of the Fleas" been recorded in a church for reverb and with drums, it could have slotted into 2003's Haha Sound. Give "The Games You Play" proper production and its motorik pulse may have found its way onto Tender Buttons. "Follow the Light" has wispy strands of organ that makes it feel like the spiritual successor to fan favourite "Echo's Answer" from 2000's The Noise Made by People.
Despite these comparisons, Broadcast's albums are all sonically distinct from one another, and the LP that Spell Blanket might have been is no different. Many of its songs are unadorned, with only Keenan's voice and an acoustic guitar, tracing Keenan's roots all the way back to her pre-Broadcast folk origins as a member of the short-lived duo Hayward Winters. It's these songs that are the most special on the album. "Mother Plays Games" has a bucolic flute wafting over psychedelic lyrics like "Can you find me counting in the tree trunk?"
Mid-album highlight "I Want to Be Fine" has nursery rhymes that Syd Barrett could have written—"Trees are full of green leaves / Offering me offering me green tears"—sung in the voice of a small child over dulcet acoustic arpeggios. It's hard not to imagine what these songs could have been: would Broadcast have kept them as-is and dove more into psychedelic folk, or would they have embellished more, and added more synths and electronics? Either way, it's a fascinating glimmer of what they might have done next.
Trish Keenan was interested in both the uncanny and the quotidian, discovering secrets in both quietude and noise, and documented all of that in music that was both pop and experimental. That's why Broadcast developed a cult fan base despite never penning any hits (the closest they've come to mainstream success was the use of one of their early songs on the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery soundtrack): they had a unique sound and vision, thanks largely to Keenan's outsized presence. Spell Blanket will be followed later this year by Distant Call, which unearths demos from their previous albums, and gives that cult a chance to visit those dichotomies again. So, come on let's go.
Lista de títulos01 The Song Before the Song Comes Out
02 March of the Fleas
03 Greater Than Joy
04 Mother Plays Games
05 My Marble Eye
06 Roses Red
07 Hip Bone to Hip Bone
08 Running Back to Me
09 I Blink You Blink
10 Infant Girl
11 I Run in Dreams
12 Luminous Image
13 A Little Light
14 Hairpin Memories
15 My Body
16 Follow the Light
17 Tunnel View
18 Where Are You?
19 Singing Game
20 I Want to Be Fine
21 The Games You Play
22 Grey Grey Skies
23 Puzzle
24 The Clock Is on Fire
25 Petal Alphabet
26 Tell Table
27 Fatherly Veil
28 Dream Power
29 Heartbeat
30 Call Sign
31 Crone Motion
32 Sleeping Bed
33 Join in Together
34 Colour in the Numbers
35 I Am the Bridge
36 Spirit House