Album review: Errors - Have Some Faith

By Colin Somverville
Published on Sunday 22 January 2012 04:40

THE Glasgow four-piece define their own electronica on this third album, all bold motifs and strident bass lines, disconnected vocal harmonies and oriental flourishes.

It strangely echoes Ryuichi Sakamoto’s soundtrack for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, but the inscrutability is emphatically European despite this. Vocals have been wholly incorporated for the first time, but only in the sense of being an additional element of the instrumentation. There are traces of French electro pioneers such as Daft Punk, traditional German masters such as Tangerine Dream, and any prog rocker who ever strapped on a synthesiser in anger.

Tusk and Magna Encarta set the bar high with surging melodic pulses following their own agenda. The core of the record is atmospheric ambience, a soundtrack for an imaginary movie threading its way through Blank Media to The Knock and cleansing the palate for the intergalactic funky Gregorian chant of Canon and Earthscore. Errors’ inventive ambience demands attention rather than merely folding into the mix; it’s chilly yet strangely warm. This is the sound of the voices in your head, and the places that put them there. One such is The Knock, inspired by band member Stephen Livingston’s fondness for hillwalking, presumably up Crieff way. Replace with the landscape of your choice as this is an entirely subjective soundtrack.

Rating: ****

• Download this: Magna Encarta, Blank Media

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