Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Somewhere along the line we have found a way to be believe that polished beyond the point of recognition is to be lauded as the ultimate form of expression, that the deep rumble of an old recording, one with jumps and scratches, of moments of tin driven sound and supposed lack of fireworks, is the only way in which to hear the beat of another person’s mind.
Being cultured, graceful and elegant to the point of stirring another’s heart does not mean having to wipe out all the back-ground sound that comes with it; nothing is more important than life, the crash of waves as the blood pumps round the brain as it figures out exactly what makes art beautiful.
Mat Walklate’s Sea of Blues is a passion and regard for the ways of the ocean of time that separates us in the modern age to that of a distant, but gratifying time of a genre’s appeal. It is an urgent and immediate pulse that recognises what the old masters were trying to show us, and something we neglected to understand in the spiralling days of the genre’s less passionate times, in its more concerned with appearance than depth of character.
Sea of Blues showcases music that conjures up memories of what might have been, and certainly of what once was, the hidden world of the simple production, of a booth in which musicianship was not about image, but instead a mystical creativity, in a world that is insists on the appearance rather than judging on the merit, this is an air of respectability to which many would fail to understand, but which hopefully is heard and investigated freely.
Mat Walklate is joined by Paulo Fuschi, Bo Lee, Tom Attah, Adam Dawson, Rachel Lasham, Laurie Agnew, Justin Shearn, Calypso George and Stevie Oakes across the range of songs on the album and the harmony produced, the sense of trust as they hold each other’s time carefully, is one of enormous satisfaction.
In tracks such as Could Have Been, The Sun Never Shines, So Deep In Trouble, Exactly What You Need, Modest Man, Answer Your Phone and Rivers of Jordan-Get Ready, the ghosts of the past take form, take on the flesh of the present and live and breathe with conviction and pathos, of the exuberant and enthusiastic. Life does not need to be polished to the point where any slight hiccup is to be wiped away from existence, it should rather be celebrated and recorded as any document worth its salt should be, a memory that only the sea retains.
Ian D. Hall