Smackvan – Sound in Space

As Passkeepers in the early 1990s, and more recently as Smackvan, Michael Feeney, Owen McAulay and Gerry Elliot (along with various others, at different points along the way) have been hovering at the fringes of the Scottish underground for two decades now. Their output has been erratic and unpredictable, befitting the music, which tends to be murky, subdued and lyrically elliptical. Songs like My Happiness, which sets melancholy vocals alongside understated guitar arpeggios, demonstrate an impressive willingness to maintain space in the music.

At such points, a brooding intensity that recalls bands like Gravenhurst or Hood gradually emerges from the gloom. When embellished with more ornate instrumentation, however – the synths, percussion and lead guitar on Black Eyes, for example – some of that power is diminished. Yet for the most part Smackvan recognise the value of shadows and subtlety, and Sound in Space, though not without its flaws, is consequently an enticingly strange and enigmatic record. [Sam Wiseman]