Sian Alice Group - Troubled, Shaken Etc

Album Review by Lauren Mayberry | 03 Aug 2010
Album title: Troubled, Shaken Etc
Artist: Sian Alice Group
Label: Beautiful Happiness/Social Registry
Release date: 3 August

Love That Moves The Sun begins with enticing piano, the drum shuffle undulating throughout. Airlock provides lush, minimalist layering, before traditional instruments seep into the soundscape to great effect. Looped xylophones develop into a cascade in Close To The Ground, burrowing into straight rhythms and floating vocal circles.

The album showcases a variety of time signatures and rhythms, First Song- Angelina bubbling along almost heartbeat-like, whilst Grow Again, Repeat illustrates a waltz-driven lament, demonstrating the record’s downbeat, melancholic ambiance. Also present throughout are the ethereal female vocals which seem to be the album’s elfin trademark, strangely complimented by almost indecipherable lyrical content at times.

Improvisation and eastern European themes dominate, but tracks tend to roll on slightly too long to remain completely captivating, but all are dynamic to the hilt. Continuously flowing, this record could, at points, appear to lack definitive direction, the abstract constantly juxtaposed with the arranged in a way which could be interesting to some but cause a casual listener to tire.