It’s been a while since we heard from Jamie Woon. 2011 to be precise. Back then his debut album Mirrorwriting was a critics’ favourite, a ghostly post-dubstep soul affair that had “music journo-friendly” written all over it. He remains an elusive figure, easy on the eye yet reticent of playing the game and propelling himself into the public realm. His second album is, by his own somewhat abstract standards, a poppier affair, created in collusion with Lexxx, AKA rising producer Alex Dromgoole who’s previously worked with Bjork, Wild Beasts, Crystal Castles and multiple others. It is a warmer, more engaging collection than its predecessor.
Making Time opens with the easy, breezy “Message”, a slice of 21st century Balearic. Indeed the word “Balearic” could be applied to much of the album, which rides a gentle fusion of electronica and carefully crafted acoustic songwriting. Jazz is never far away either. “Sharpness” sums up this tendency, coming on midway between José González and James Blake, with the former’s complexity and the latter’s ability to subtly inject underlying background techno threat, in this case a very self-effacing ravey bassline in miniature.
As with Woon’s debut, there are times when his wispy, hardly-there dynamic drifts into the forgettable, but there are also enough busy moments; the chewy, squelching bass groove of “Movement”, the call’n’response chants of the vaguely psychedelic “Thunder”, the steel-band tinted slow funk of closer “Dedication”, and the Seventies vibe of “Little Wonder”, with its Fleetwood Mac-ish guitar solo. Making Time is not an album that leaps out and clouts the listener round the head but, then again, it was unlikely it ever would be. I’d love to hear what this quietly talented musician would do with funkier, louder, more outré material but, for the moment, he holds his own.
Overleaf: Listen to "Sharpness"
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