Fairweather Friend EP

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Wow. A proper release for Homelife! La di da ;) Having previously released two albums on their own label, MadWaltz, Homelife secure the services of cohort Justin Robertson's label, Master Detective, to release an EP of brand new material which'll hopefully spread the word a little further afield. Continuing the wildly eclectic vein traced out on their recent full-length Cho Cho, Fairweather Friend is, as you'd imagine, no compromise. The core of Homelife, Paddy Steer, Tony Burnside and Simon King, have once again drawn on a collective of Manchester's most talented musicians to produce their live/sampled sound, though this time the vocals are handled principally by Semay Wu as opposed to Faron Brooks, lending the three tracks a distinctive edge - the kind of gently unsettling but enjoyable 'East meets West' fusion you feel when adrift in Eastern Europe, or following the grand(ish) tradition of exotica traced out by Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Yma Sumac etc. Pursuing this train of thought, perhaps 'Madame Butterfly' is as much an influences as Madchester (represented again by 808 State's Graham Massey, though as his role is principally bass clarinet player, this is more South Pacific than Pacific State), though Manchester's ability as a city to rapidly incorporate change and absorb numerous wide-ranging influences may be subconsciously responsible for bands like Homelife, and their seemingly instinctive ability to meld a coherent sound from radically different personalities. Perhaps this pseuds-corner, so-called insight is inappropriate though, as this EP is too laid-back and simply enjoyable at face value to react to clumsy analytical prods, indeed it's Homelife's most accessible, and most refined, output so far. The drums are certainly beefed-up slightly, achieving a lazy hip-hop shuffle on the title track and "Bus Brakes", which also features Wu's soaring vocals snaking around Massey's jazzy bass clarinet. They save the best till last though. Final track "Yes ... No ... Yes ... No" is like delicately inked pinyin, scored out with rice-paper fragility; delightfully drifting, swooping vocals embellishing a magic carpet of languid exotica-derived strings, echoing Yma Sumac's Voice Of The Xtabay as much as anything. Overall, another release of sheer class, and respect is certainly (long over)due. There's still enough sunshine left over here for this to be the perfect soundtrack to a higher state of barbeque, and for those of you for whom summer is yet to begin, do try to get hold of this release to adequately sound design your seasons.