This week's PBS Feature Album is Into The Doldrums, the debut album from Now Always Fades.
With four albums under his Sonny Ism alias, Naarm/Melbourne singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mix engineer Xavier Bacash flips the script and starts again with the debut album Into The Doldrums.
Recorded in the wake of returning to Australia with his family after spending seven years in Copenhagen and Stockholm, Into The Doldrums sees Bacash building on the beautifully melancholic downtempo, deep house, and synth-pop sensibilities he’s explored as Sonny Ism. Inspired by The Durutti Column, Massive Attack, and Everything But The Girl, the album sees him painting shades of post-punk, ethereal pop, trip-hop and street soul into nine aesthetically consistent songs. From the early morning ambience of ‘Into The Doldrums’ to the heaving breakbeat soul of ‘Close To Greatness’ and the sundown strut of ‘A Pain I Used To Feel’, Into The Doldrums unfolds with the logic of a hazy, sunkissed daydream.
Through recording Now Always Fades, Bacash unlocked the template for what he sees as the next stage in his musical journey. “I like the idea that in the future, although I might be the common denominator as the artist, I can keep working with a changing landscape of vocalists to keep the listener guessing as they work through the music - kind of like how a director approaches their films,” he explains.
Tune in all this week to hear tracks from Into The Doldrums, and PBS Members have the chance to win a copy of the album on vinyl: simply email your name and membership number to before midnight Sunday June 1.
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TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING THIS WEEK
Guy Contact - 'Anybody Out There?'
Mina Yu - 'Sleeping At The End Of The Day'
Xani - 'Scans'
OjiAji - 'Be Like A Cloud'
Shanti Celeste - 'Butterflies'
Hektor - 'Voltage'
Stella Anning - 'Travels'
Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ - 'My Darling My Heart'
Gwenno - 'War'
Yaya Bey - 'raisins'
