Ensemble Economique

Brian Pyle makes a breathtaking diversion to gaseous ambient goth pop realms with Ensemble Economique's 'The Fever Logic' LP. The Starving Weirdo's return to NNF proceeds multiple tours of Europe and Russia in the last year alone, which evidently influenced the more expansive, lush and rolling forms of this sublime side. Six songs unfurl as a gauzy, funereal 40 minute daydream, flush with Pyle's remarkable shoegaze-style vocals and signature FM synth washes all delicately hung in the balance with his sought-after mixing desk dexterity. From the top 'We Come Spinning Out Of Control' glides slo-mo across dry-iced landscapes and Berlin-esque synth chords under vapourous cloud of vocals and lingering stadium drums buried deep in the distance, whilst 'Walking Into The Light' practically sucks the air from your lungs with its lamenting shoegaze intent, to be replaced by the humid, thunder-crackling synth atmospheres of 'The Night Air Burning'. There's a trace of his noisier, darker, folksier self to the brooding strums and silty grey noise washes of 'Blindfold', but we'd place 'Into Nowhere Again' closer The Field than his former works, and 'End Scene' returns to the stormy night vista, drenched in drizzle and tingling with spine-freezing chords and miasmic, mournful vocals. If we had an epic European roadtrip to make, this album would get played to death. Massive Recommendation.