My take was that they basically had one shot at it. It wasnât the perfect encapsulation of that sound, they could have written a few stronger tunes and made a properly classic record from it, but there wasnât really anywhere to go with it on further records. The only thing you can do with that sound that stripped back is⊠flesh it out. By which it loses its intimacy and impact (and tbh cracks start to show in how proficient they really are as musicians).
Should have just called the project a day afterwards, but then theyâre headlining major festivals in 2026, nearly two decades later, so what do I know.
That first album is fine but they were a shocking live act back then. Saw them a few times and you may as well have been playing the album over the PA.
They occupy the same space as Four Tet for me where I just always forget that, because theyâre generally fairly unassuming and not very star-y, theyâre in reality a really massive artist and rich as fuck.
âIntroâ alone, syncâd on every single moody documentary since the 2010s, will earn them a fortune every year.