4 out of 5

Label: Un je-ne-sais-quoi

Produced by: Paul Durango

A non-stop bleed of electro pop, every moment Paul Durango’s compositions threaten to veer towards being too kitsch, the artist pulls back and goes dark, grinding out beats that could be found scattered across Thrill Jockey groove of the late 90s. And when that gets close to being a bit too predictable, Paul turns on some ambience, fleshing out the world of any given song.

“Just Bodies” is a title that, to me, represents the juxtaposition of our flesh and blood: that being all we are, but that that’s also a very complex system, running a billion systems just to have us take a step forward. A single figure on the album’s cover steps, cautiously, amidst a sea of groping arms – simplicity; complexity.

The music here follows suit, bouncing as it does through the modes mentioned above, Durango always keeping eyes on both forward momentum, and not allowing us to get bored – the listen is ultimately linked through the production, providing warm but crisp synth sounds and a fuzzy beat, but the mood and pace shifts intra-song, and between songs. It’s breathlessly catchy.

…Though, by design I’d say, it also doesn’t dive much deeper than that. Most of the song titles capture a feel, or an image, and that’s what the music goes for. Even though the compositions are very squiggly in form, there’s not a larger story told than those individual feelings, each of which are – again by design – rather fleeting.

It takes a very skilled musician to make something sound this breezy.