This album starts with the chant of "Well I'm back" and never a truer word said for this "new" album on Luke Una's transmissive label, É Soul Cultura.
So we've had the original album (see review HERE) and then the single 'My Shadow' (Crooked Shade) / 'Mega' (Crooked) (see review HERE) and here's the full album version by Crooked!
The album starts with 'Mega' but it's 'Up' that gets us engrossed with its dub/version/remix style of 'Part 2'.
Crooked Man (aka Richard Barratt) has got some Perry/Sherwood/Weatherall influences to draw upon and much more as his credits range from Róisín Murphy's 'Róisín Machine' (and 'Crooked Machine') to remixing Escort's 'Cocaine Blues' and working with the late Richard H. Kirk.
So Crooked Man has got form in this type of mutation and 'Crooked Transmissions' is a pretty diverse album, such as 'Up' gets transmitted to a higher plain of Sheffield synth pop heritage and with this "out-there" adventurism, most of the tracks are quite lenghty which is great for the dancefloor; particularly like 'Everything (Gone Crooked)' that's got a bit of PIL's 'Metal Box' to it and the warped 'Planetary Alignment (Bent Crooked)' where the lazer beams have been deflected (in fact, this need to be longer).
Talking of warped, what the George Clinton is 'One (2 Crooked)' about? It's like Talking Heads have had an electro shock lobotomy - brilliant.
It's not all experimental, 'My Shadow' has a dnb vibe, there's the chill-out dub 'Go Slow Heart' and 'Sparse' goes a bit trip-hop-pop. But is it all a build-up to prepare us for 10 minutes of 'Roller Skater (Crooked Wheels)'?
In fact, this is one of those albums that's so well produced and deep on every level, it's really hard to say what your favourite track is (so i won't) but if you had any thoughts that this was some hurriedly put together 10 track remix 'throw away' release, you'd be miles of the mark - I predict this is going to be 'Album Of The Year' on many a chart.
In some ways the original album and this, lets call it a follow-up, is very much Luke Una, (check his Luke Una presents É Soul Cultura compilations on Mr Bongo, see review HERE) as he's not a man to get tied down musically and I wonder what the future plans for Transmission Towers (Mark Kyriacou and Eleanor Mante) could possibly be?
Artist: Transmission Towers
Title: Crooked Transmissions
Release date: 25th October, 2024
Label: É Soul Cultura
Cat. No: ESOULDIGI01
Format: All the Digitals / Bandcamp
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