THE MUSIC
Much like its predecessor ‘Part Idiot’, the album is full of strong melodies held together by chunky rhythms, and draws heavy influence from late 90s/early 00s electronica - with various tracks referencing the likes of Orbital, Future, Sound of London, Plaid, Mu-Ziq, LFO etc. Its tracks are sonically rich enough to listen to while relaxing at home, but upbeat enough to dance to in a club.
In an age of largely generative. impersonal electronic music, this is a very human album. Every note has been written, every drum hit carefully programmed, and there is not so much as a sniff of AI anywhere in the music or the accompanying art. Melodically, there are slightly more strong lead synth lines than in the previous album, and beat-wise there are slightly fewer sampled breakbeats and more Roland-style drum patterns. All of this combines to make a slightly more electro-flavoured album that its predecessor.

Adding to the personal, human feel of the album, Paul plays live piano on both the album opener Stray Feathers and its closing track New Pillows, with the motif introduced in the very start of the album being revisited to tie things up nicely at the end. Track 2 Jawbone takes a vocoded beat reminiscent of ‘Farewell to UL7’ from the first album, and leads it on a musical journey evoking in turns Orbital, Daft Punk and Future Sound of London. The Gonch is a strange mix of styles, with a verse-chorus-verse structure that alternates between hard electro and psychedelic rock. Confidence Boots marries a hard-hitting beat with Plaid-style melodic intrigue that dances between major and minor chords and switches time signatures regularly. Flemtex slows things down, with a contemplative melody and 5/4 time signature, which opens up in the second half to become a vast FSOL-type soundscape. Hephi starts off with classic electro sounds, before switching half way through to a dark tech-breakbeat monster with soaring strings. The album finishes with an epic two-parter Old Pillows / New Pillows, which begins in an early Warp Records style (think ‘Artificial Intelligence’ series), before a Mu-Ziq style lead melody takes over and it swells with echoing strings and piano into a suitably bombastic finale.

As with the previous album, the final polish was added to the album by Darryl Elkins (aka Tarsiform), whose technical skill and keen ear for sonic balance has contributed to dozens of electronic releases over the past few years.

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​​THE LABEL
Touched Music began in 2013 as a project to raise money for Macmillan Cancer, and has grown over the years into one of the most prolific and respected electronic labels operating today. Its releases are a mix of genuine legends such as FSOL, Plaid, Autechre, 808 State etc, and the finest contemporary artists such as Inkipak, Karstem Pflum, Velum Breaks, John Tejada and Skurken.