New Music: Stateless

It’s easy to talk about the ‘epic’ quality of this or that record, its ‘cinematic’ feel. And how many artists have you heard say, as Chris James, lead singer of Stateless does, that ‘I wanted the record to be like a journey’? But sometimes it’s true. Sometimes you have to hold up your hands and admit it.

Welcome to Matilda, then, an eleven track, fifty minute follow-up to 2007’s eponymous debut, which takes all of those easy words and makes something concrete out of them. Working with Bjork producer/programmer Damian Taylor, Matilda ties together classic songwriting with rhythmic drive, slatherings of sub-bass and enough electronic interference to satisfy the most anal of glitch-nerds. The results are spectacular.

‘I wanted you to enter a world,’ explains James, ‘and travel through that world, meeting different characters, and having different experiences along the way. Matilda, is obviously one of the main characters, but there are other characters too, in order of appearance, you’ve got Maria, Ariel, The Devil, The Assassins, NGB, The Outsider, Junior, and more, and all of these characters have a role to play in the bigger picture…’ He pauses for a moment to consider the enormity of what he hopes he has achieved. ‘It’s like a strange and beautiful dreamscape,’ he says. ‘It’s dark, surreal, mysterious, full of weird and wonderful characters. It’s a big piece of work. I hope that people get that, when they hear it. I think it’s gonna take quite a few listens before it really sinks in. It’s a proper album, it works as a whole. I want people to do the Pink Floyd thing, and listen to it from start to finish really loud on good headphones.’

Stateless
Matilda
Out Now
Ninja Tune Records

Go here for a FREE Mini Mix of the album Matilda and more info about the band!

sean.