When music speaks directly to your heart your head has to listen. When your feelings are touched by songs that are crafted with love and an album that like Pandora sees the chink of light in the bottom of the box, you surrender, you give yourself over, you let it leave its imprint in your mind and your muscles and leave its gentle footprints on your soul.
This is lofty talk indeed for an album from relative newcomers but South London trio, DEMS thoroughly deserve the praise. Following the delicate trail of the taut, alternative electronica laid by James Blake, SBTRKT, Ghostpoet, Woodkid and Odesza Dems’ ‘Muscle Memory’ effortlessly transports you from circle swimming in the spaces between the notes of ‘Sinking In The Sorry’ to striding along, carried by the cinematic, trip hop sweep of ‘Night Tales’ with its shivering cymbals and overloaded bass. The choral almost prog-rock beauty of ‘Sense of An Ending’ is profoundly touching. ‘Made For Myself’ is driven by the strains of melancholy brass, strummed guitars and trickling percussive nu-jazz / broken beats. The sum of the soulful yearning of ‘Wake’ plus the military drummed ‘Muscle Memory’ and ‘Made For Myself’ feels like Sbtrkt multiplied and the metal guitar strummed ‘Got No Brains’ hypnotises with its folk harmonies and sticky pitched vocal hook. Gentle alternative folk of ‘Night Tales’ puts me in mind of songwriters Fink and Matt Santos – laid back, considered, holding back but pushing forwards.
Technically and creatively ‘Muscle Memory’ is the real deal: it’s beautifully produced enough to hold its own amongst the big boys and outstanding enough to make you put an outsider bet on a nomination for them for the Mercury Music Prize 2015. Looks like 2015 is going to be a busy year for Dan, Dave and Duncan. Remember the places where you read this first.
4 out of 5
Reviewed By Paulette
{http://soundcloud.com/dems/05-muscle-memory}
