CATCHING FLIES Vinilo y CD

Review: Catching Flies, real name George King, has created his most emotional and cohesive project yet, Tides. Going into this bright, fluorescent dreamwork with a single goal in mind - "how do I make this sound much bigger than a guy sitting in a room with a laptop and a MIDI keyboard?" - the result is a fantastic, retrofutural full-length landing somewhere between the -wave and -punk electronica aestheticians of recent memory; Flume, Time Wharp, Lone, and Pomrad all spring to mind. Typically wide-ranging in genre, the album highlights King's ability to effortlessly manoeuvre and experiment across the spectrum of electronic music, from hip-hop to house, from soul to neo-classical. The album will be released in combination with a live video performance featuring a string quartet and a harpist.

Review: Catching Flies' debut album "Silver Linings" was a gently eclectic and hard-to-pigeonhole affair - think soulful fusions of hip-hop, house, jazz and electronica - so it makes perfect sonic sense that this remixed version should include revisions by an impressively diverse array of artists. There are naturally a clutch of more dancefloor-centric reworks - see Andhim's hypnotic, tech-tinged deep house take on "Opals", Ron Basejam's deep jazz-house version of "New Gods", a bustling breakbeat pass of "Satisfied" by Soundbwoy Killah and DJ Seinfeld's deliciously saucer-eyed, rave-friendly re-imagining of "Silver Linings" - as well as a clutch of more downtempo-minded tweaks. Highlights in the latter category include a bluesy "Ambient Reprise" of "Satisfied" and Freddie Joachim's delightfully dusty, slow-motion version of "Kite Hill Theme".