Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Perhaps we are conditioned by what we hear when we envisage certain place names. To hear for example the city name of New York will light up the mind in response to dynamic abundance, of bright lights and big personalities; Paris will conjure up romance and revolution, of enlightenment, and Liverpool of solidarity, of art, and the willingness to fight for belief, and each of these places are captured righty in every detail through art, through song and lyric.
How to examine the art when it carries a name that has become synonymous with a more direct inference in recent years; it is after all unavoidable, and the title is the first port of call-in deducing just how to approach the album, as with all art, the title is how we define our understanding, how we might identify with the keenness of the artist.
Brimos’ new album encapsulates that feeling, and as each track from Intergalactic Hits Vol. 2 Wuhan struts its inevitable stuff, so the listener takes note, for this is science and the release of secrets, and dare it be mentioned, it is infectious.
It could be that this is a deliberation of the artist, and it works, creatively it offers a slyness of cool, a strut of persuasive transmission, and as tracks such as the opener Didn’t See It Coming, Piaya Pandemic, Unexpected Disco Giveaway, Time Was Right, and the finale of Will I Ever Know, all playfully tease the listener, expecting one thing and having the rug delightfully pulled from underneath them as a different set of fortunes reveal themselves.
The album marks Brian Robinson’s first release of a recording to take completely in place in China. Having spent 14 years in South Korea and the Philippines, the former Liverpool resident has found a particularly satisfying notch that he has carved out of his travelling musical stick, and in Intergalactic Hits Vol. 2 Wuhan he leads merrily and with honour the listener to a place of inspection, of understanding differences and playful detachment.
An album that doesn’t spare anguish, but one that will caress the night as you listen with intent.
Ian D. Hall