The third album from Errors sees them expand on the finest elements of their sound, producing their most accomplished work to date. Working around their familiar template and adding new and refreshing ideas to embellish things to most pleasing effect, this album portrays a group shaping their sound into something that is their own. There's the colourful burst of 'Tusk' with its soaring space disco guitar and gliding synth melodies which provide the record with a beautifully panoramic opening.
Warm pretty synths open 'Magna Encarta' before the disciplined mechanics of the drums enter, along with the introduction of some very distant vocals. Somehow near the end of the track it has mutated into some slick sounding modern R N B booty shaker, but roughed up by the chaos of the angry drums and squealing guitars that accompany it. This is the first Errors record to feature vocals, although rather than being featured in a conventional manner, they are instead used as an instrumental element, often sounding far away, ambient and hazy. An example can be found in 'Blank Media' which is set to a bleak and slow paced backdrop, before 'Pleasure Palaces' arrives, providing a major highlight. It has the dreamy euphoric ambience of an Ibiza dance anthem while maintaining an impressive level of musical intelligence and innovation, while the wide array of vintage synth sounds lend it an even more interesting edge.
Elsewhere there's the stubborn beat and clanging Oriental melody of 'The Knock', before 'Canon' provides a short hypnotic interlude. 'Earthscore' begins with tribal percussion and theremin, building gradually piece by piece into an electro prog-rock climax. The influence of various genres can be detected here, and the cold, spacious 'Cloud Chamber' could almost be a lost Depeche Mode instrumental. The post-rock atmospherics of 'Barton Spring' get bigger with every repetition of its desolate melody, before 'Holus Bolus' concludes the album with a welcome burst of sunshine with its uplifting flavours and bringing together of many of the band's best musical characteristics.
It's an album you can (sometimes) dance to AND appreciate as a clever, progressive and forward-looking piece of work. If you're not yet familiar with Errors, then now is surely the best time. 8.2
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