Jack Garratt is rapidly sizing up to be one of this year's most exciting artists, with lots of blog love and radio hype. As such it is with some excitement that I greeted his latest EP, his sophomore release Synesthesiac.
The release opens with the experimental-ambient-post-garage of Synesthesia Pt. 1, a track that sounds unlike almost anything I've heard before. A lounge piano loop rubs up against elephant-sized slobbering bass before dissolving into thin air, eventual re-materialising as the haunting intro to The Love You're Given, and the scene is set.
That lead single The Love You're Given remains Garratt's greatest track is no backhanded compliment - it is such an incredible piece of music and here it stands tall within it's carefully crafted surroundings. That it is so careful intertwined within Synesthesiac is almost cause for disappointment - it suggests that the song is unlikely to make a reappearance on Garratt's debut, when we inevitably get one, and boy does it deserve wider repeated listening. At turns delicately weeping and then gut-churningly heavy, this song feels like three different artist's best records all at once - shimmering falsetto soul, Earth-shattering bass and cut-up folk tangled up into one five-minute long masterpiece.
Chemical is similar in exhibiting Garratt's willingness to cut 'n' shut disparate genres, ferocious beats lending his vocals a sinister and determined edge. It never quite achieves the same sheer intensity of emotion but it remains an incredible track. Finally Lonesome Valley delivers slowly looping blues, full of fuzzy kick drums and distorted bass, and gradually builds towards the EP's epic release.
Synesthesiac is an EP that reaches beyond the four songs it contains to create something far more significant than the format can normally deliver. If you want to hear the sound of the future, Garratt is a safe bet.
Synesthesiac is out now on Duly Noted Records. Listen to All The Love You're Given and Chemical below, or purchase the EP on iTunes [affiliate link].