Studio Electrophonique – ‘Studio Electrophonique’ album review: a delicate folk delight
Sheffield-native James Leesley offers up delicate folk delights with his debut album under the Studio Electrophonique moniker. While it’s a name that might pay homage to the city’s DIY pop past, the beauty of this opening offering is that it exists in a world of its own.
The Skinny: Tales of couples with favourite graveyards, the existentialist impacts of a dreary seaside holiday, and feeling emotionally trapped in the cabin of a taxi cab all unspool in this filagreed snapshot of workaday romanticism.
Like Charles Baudelaire at his best, there’s nothing mawkish about these mild tales from the heartbroken proletariat. Leesley’s writing, instead, captures a moving poeticism that just so happens to be understated and without the glamour afforded to courtships of the wealthier classes.
These tales are then carefully crafted into ditties consisting of textural electric guitar, a melody provided by an appreciatively and sparsely strummed acoustic, and sustained organ ambience. Occasionally, even a charity shop percussion tape enters the mix. And a singular Erik Satie-like echo chamber runs throughout.
The result is a world of quilted reverie. Resonance and wistfulness abound in equal measure as Studio Electrophonique doesn’t quite probe and pry at modern realism like a heavy-handed Ken Loach, instead, Leesley just gingerly peeks behind the curtain at it to see what the commotion is outside.
With a hushed croon that could rock a can of Red Bull to sleep, these songs are also gorgeously performed. There’s an actorly subtlety to them, never once straining for attention, just humbly appealing to your sense of quirky cosiness like Submarine and a few other cinematic works of art before it. Pauses and lines delivered with potent clarity add to the sense of consideration that makes these feathery songs soar.
The Verdict: Amid a hectic year, this lulling album has been a beautiful antidote. It’s literary ways capture the Sheffield saudade with an assortment of the sweetest songs to ever prove catchy. Should Studio Electrophonique ever go by another name, then Soft Touch might be apt.
Defining track: ‘David and Jayne’
Release date: September 26th | Producer: Simon Tong | Label: Valley of Eyes Records
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