Papercutz’s gravitational centre is Bruno Miguel, who’s erected a musical flag that flutters in a clear ambient sky with a hint of cirrus jazz, trip-hop clouds and electro/acoustic lightning. Stitched together with the same precision as Four Tet’s work, his debut album Lylac spun candy into the ears and was a critical success.
Miguel has now allowed a number of fellow stuntmen to unpick his stitching and add their own needlework in remixing and retooling tracks from this album. All We Have Left, retooled by Emanuele Errante, shuffles along like gamelin trills, while Gift Of Self (Simon Scott) is a delightful ambient ebb beneath the original vocals, sounding like The Cranberries’ lead singer on vacation. Is Fading (Feu Follet) suggests the minimalist river force of Phillip Glass arching across flat ground towards the sea, while Taylor Dupree’s Do Outro Lado Do Espelho ends gloriously with vocals repeating into infinity. Encanamendo is a new Miguel track – albeit recycling an original LP vocal – with a piano clarity which recalls Conny Plank’s production, while Ultraviolets gets an intergalactic morse-stroke from Croydon via Rameses III. Essential counterpoint to the original album.
