Teletextile – Glass

It’s difficult to fault Pamela Martinez’s Brooklyn-based Teletextile project in terms of craftsmanship. The songs here are stitched together from arrangements encompassing piano, harp, guitars, strings, electronics and choir, all of which are delicately overlaid in a way that allows space for each. That balance and precision, however, also captures the fundamental weakness of Glass: a feeling that these songs lack a sense of purpose and direction.

Consequently, for all of Martinez’s evident admiration of Björk’s adventurousness and sonic diversity, the end result all too often sounds like an anaemic, MOR imitation – particularly on songs like Gesso, which recall the more insipid reaches of 90s trip-hop. It’s a pity, because elsewhere, as the drifting melancholy of What If You indicates, there is evidence of a genuine songwriting talent buried beneath those baroque arrangements. Teletextile just need to learn to use that sonic tapestry in a way that articulates a more distinctive vision.