I must confess to have only heard one Jeff Martin song before sitting down with the Spoons remix and rejig album, that being the joyous Magnet Line. Thankfully, this release works not as an odds-and-ends collection, but a coherent, cohesive and quite moving record. Having Tortoise and Sea And Cake’s John McEntire behind the helm of the original album was an impressive coup for Martin, and similarly there are names in the liner notes here that would make any post-rock or electronica gourmand steam up their glasses. Slint’s David Pajo, Mice Parade, Isan, Minotaur Shock, and McEntire himself all reinterpret Spoons original songs, along with closer-to-home acts such as Decal, Chequerboard, and Martin’s Halfset bandmate Steve Shannon.
It is Minotaur Shock’s spin on Shuttlecock that opens the album, a fitting prelude of string samples exploding into an IDM drum burst and hail of triumphant trumpets, coming off like a, well, Minotaur Shock song with guitars. Isan’s take on Magnet Line does not better the original, but sticks closely to its blueprint. Thankfully though, it’s already an utterly beautiful piece of musical architecture. Mice Parade’s Plays Music number takes Nick Drake guitars and manufactures a small symphonic delight. Decal’s reworking of Balancing Act is far better than anything I’ve ever heard them produce themselves, strangely enough, and they produce the album’s most anthemic point. It is only the High Llamas’ and Chequerboard’s contributions that bring the album down, in an otherwise set of repeatedly enjoyable pieces, up to the crescendoing closer of Veelow (Part 1) as interpreted by PJ Harvey’s right-hand man John Parish.
Martin’s lyrics are not his strong point, and wisely half the songs here are purely instrumental. When he does sing, his voice functions as a breath-taken carrier of melodies rather than messages. With an overall sound that is something like Mice Parade’s own work mixed with American Analog Set’s electronic atmospherics, what in most circumstances would be an inconsequential release is crafted into a substantial, standalone success. A sleeper-hit essential.
