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Russian Linesman is back with his groundbreaking new album Remember When We Were Thriving available on his very own Loki Recordings from Friday 21st August. Fourteen exclusive and original tracks, that work as a cohesive story. One to play from start to finish.
Jamie Boyer took the Russian Linesman alter ego back in 2006 (named after Tofiq Bahramov, the controversial Soviet linesman in the 1966 World Cup Final), leaving his acoustic guitar behind to focus on conceptual musical storytelling. His production technique is different to others, building a digital sarcophagus and enclosing snippets of vocals, guitars and pianos inside.
The Nottingham-based producer is well respected for the beauty of his melodic electronica. Nemone (BBC 6 Music) heavily championed his multi-part EP projects on her Electric Ladyland and 6 Mix shows and even invited him for a prestigious “An Evening With…” guest slot alongside legends such as Jon Hopkins and DJ Shadow. Lauren Laverne has aired his music on Radio 6 Breakfast Show. Others that have spun his tracks in their DJ sets include Nick Warren, John Digweed, Quivver, Maps (James Chapman), Max Cooper and Laurent Garnier.
Every track on Remember When We Were Thriving deserves its place on the album, each with its own beauty to tell a bigger story. Highlights include The Shattered Vessel, a beautiful lo-fi number that sets the scene perfectly. Second track Errata has definite nods to Twin Peaks. A dreamy keyboard line gives you feeling of bliss, like opening your curtains on a beautiful sunny day in the Lake District and letting the light pour in.
Why Did You Tell Me You Loved Me starts with an otherworldly riff, phasing in and out like an alien guitar, as though to the rhythm of the phrase Why Did You Tell Me You Loved Me? The emotional feeling that of being let down after giving another your trust. Track 4, You Were Doing The Best You Could With What You Knew is permeated by a mantric synth. A sad little soul is the main antagonist here, smothered with warm hugs and positive feeling of a loving guardian.
The titular Remember When We Were Thriving, with its irregular kick drum and optimistic outlook soars above the Brazilian jungle, with a sample from seminal 1980 documentary Shock of the New. Don’t Get Too Comfortable You Can Be Replaced starts with kick drums set to attack, a groovy deep bass matched with a trippy topline with electronic crickets and cicadas whirring in this deep forest rave.
The second half of Remember When We Were Thriving is where the album truly opens up. Earlier ideas return transformed, moments of uncertainty give way to warmth and optimism and the emotional threads woven through the record begin to connect. By the time Momentary Impermanence and the closing This Is How We Are Supposed To Feel arrive, the resolution feels genuinely earned. The album invites you back time and again to discover something you’ve missed before. Truly sublime.
Buy / Stream: https://lnk.to/LOKI032
