The boys from Wintersleep are certainly busy. When not releasing their own music (such as the brilliant Welcome To The Night Sky and the grower that is their latest album Hello Hum), they seem to be involved in any number of solo and side projects, with a few of the band making up Contrived (which actually pre-date Wintersleep) and lead Paul Murphy’s fantastic solo effort Postdata getting recognition.
Jon Samuel, signed to Hidden Pony, is the latest band member to go it alone. First Transmission is refrshingly upbeat record about space, earth, and our fascination with what exists beyond our reach. Samuel cites Kurt Vonnegut as a major influence, and his style of writing definitely shows this, with an almost whimsical acceptance (or at least not the doom-and-gloom familiar from most writers) of the sad or difficult that would suit Kilgore Trout or Malachi Constant. The product are songs that are filled with wonder while maintaining a ‘real world’ view of things, preventing proceedings ever slipping into triteness
The instrumentation is arranged to support Samuel’s voice rather than compete with it, producing a rather tender and personal sounding listen that suits his vocals well. There is a whole range of sounds on show, from simple guitars to sci-fi synths and backing vocals from Rah Rah’s Erin Passmore, which all gel together to form a rich and varied sound which furthers the sense of childish (in a good way) wonder at extraterrestrial existence.
Download two tracks below and get the album directly from Jon here.
MP3: First Transmission
MP3: To Love