Black Light - Diagrams

Track list:

1. Ghost Lit
2. Tall Buildings
3. Night All Night
4. Appetite
5. Mills
6. Antelope
7. Black Light
8. Animals
9. Peninsula

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 2012

I remember when I first heard of Diagrams. It was in the run up to the one time I went to End of the Road, where they were performing. I heard a radio piece and thought "that voice is familiar" before twigging that it was Sam Genders who had been part of Tunng. I rather liked what I heard, and bought the self-titled EP, saw them live at the festival (good set as I recall) and bought this album when it followed. I also bought the 2015 follow-up Chromatics recently and was disappointed. Not sure where I'll stand on this one, other than the 27 minute duration of last track Peninsula fills me with despair.

It is later than I would normally think to start an hour-long listen, but I am 99% certain that there is about 20 minutes of silence in Peninsula so I don't anticipate sitting through it, and I need something to fill up time until I can reasonably go to bed! Ghost Lit is an odd starter, I like what they've done with Genders' vocal a lot, the effects give it depth whilst the composition and arrangement spin around it. There is not really much to the song though and some of the kookier sounds in the melange are out of place and end up detracting from, rather than adding to the ambiance.

Tall Buildings is more what I was expecting. A bright poppy guitar, a bit of pace and a similarly treated vocal - echo effect giving it weight and volume which is an interesting contrast with the very stripped back feeling I get from the super clean sound of the main riff. It fits better with the other sounds drafted into the mix, but it is that black-and-white polarisation between the main elements that makes the song interesting. The song feels very 80s but with updated modern electronica rather than awful synths. Like the preceding number, I don't think the song has much merit, but the track as a whole works really nicely. I am happier that there is more heft to Night All Night though. I remember the chorus of this one despite not having heard it (by my estimation) for 3 years or so and there is a really pleasant roll to it, and a nice change up between chorus and verse. It feels like quite a downbeat song, but the tempo for most of the piece belies a more positive air. Rather than getting caught being neither, it somehow manages to be both and really work for me.

I am casting about for things to do to wind down - I've had a long day at work, a cancelled set of evening plans, another failed run at doing something about loneliness and finally come off watching the opening episode of River on the BBC. Nicola Walker stealing the show as a manifestation of Stellan Skarsgard's dead partner in a show penned by Abi Morgan. Too many good people involved to be dull - but I came out thinking it had some excellence and a lot of guff too. Need more to draw firm conclusions. 

Not so about Black Light - I am liking it a lot for reasons I find melt into intangibility as I search for words to explain. Tracks feel very different - there are commonalities of course but musically there are also significant distances between them to my ear. Appetite is the weakest so far but even this has some energy that makes it more than bearable. That said the interesting little riff that opens Mills is very welcome, much more worthy of attention - its a strong opening that the rest of the song will do well to live up to. Here the vocal doesn't work so well, it fits with the theme alright but the echoed effect is at odds with the arrangement and jars a little. Contrast is all well and good, but using it well is an art, and here it seems to have strayed into crassness rather than consideration. The song is still interesting but I suspect it would be better with a cleaner singing voice.

I have spent too much money today. Two new pairs of shoes and another new board game; the latter something I have had on a wishlist for years but needed to wait for a recent reprinting, the former a weakness of a sale, but one where the nice bright colours I wanted weren't available in my size. Boo! Antelope is, along with Night All Night, the point at which I first engaged with Diagrams. Nice staccato structure, softly spoken lyrics, funky little rhythm. I don't think it is as good now as I thought it was when I first heard it, and were I in a less charitable mood I might be dismissive. I find that aspect of this self-defined project interesting, the effect my mood and my prejudices about what I am about to hear play into how I actually appreciate things. Good moods engender good listens and it probably takes a really bad album to bring me down in those circumstances. I love the title track. It has a really positive, happy bounce to it. Reminds me weirdly of Paul Simon for some reason, which in turn makes me think of Allo Darlin' and an all time favourite tune of mine from their self-titled debut. For something I like, I sure am avoiding actually talking about it, eh? I find it hard to describe and do justice, but suffice to say it is far more about the overall feel and optimism of the track than any specific facet of the musical construction. Nothing else matters at all (lyric stolen for appropriateness) indeed.

Animals is a disappointment on the back of the rich positiveness of Black Light. Slow, disconnected and lacking in life. Its a mess. None of the poppy craft of earlier tunes, nothing catchy, no interesting effects employed. Just a rather dull lyric and a cacophony of bits and pieces that fail to mesh; this has to go. The same will likely be true of Peninsula if my fears of Hidden Track Bullshit are confirmed - and from the opening bars that would be a shame because this has a really nice guitar melody to open, and a lovely light tinkling around it. Thankfully Amazon Music to the rescue. Because I buy the vast majority of my music through Amazon, retrospective Autorip applies and I have been able to get me a 6 minute version of the track without the silence on the end. Pleased about that, because whilst it is not as immediately vital and enthralling as Night All Night or Black Light itself, Peninsula is a pleasant little tune, even after the bad synth line takes over. Having said that, another minute or so after that point it seems to lose the plot in a most upsetting way. What started as a lovely light melody ends by diving into a morass of unnecessary experimentation and repetition that removes all of what made the opening enjoyable. Its probably still worth holding onto all the same.

As the minutes of silence start I wonder what Genders was hiding... I doubt it was much as the most egregious offenders of Hidden Track Bullshit (hello new tag!) are often those with the least to offer in return. Sound returns just shy of 23 minutes. Actually its a pretty neatly modulated vocal, and what sounds like a helicopter fading in and out softly behind it. There is something of the appeal of a Gregorian chant about the vocal on this secret track. I have to take my opening of this paragraph back - this hidden track is pretty darn good. It's a pity that there are 15 minutes of silence to get to it. I would rather like a version where that is not the case, and this could exist separately. Alas, my knowledge of how to mess about with music files is severely lacking, my Google-fu is weak and my morals probably wouldn't extend to grabbing the fruits of someone else's separation anyway so I have the choice to stick with a 28 minute track in top and tail format or ditching 2 tracks which both held my interest. Arse.