Afterglow

Afterglow

Vector Lovers [Soma]

25 September, 2007 | 9.55AM

• Written by: Richard Brophy
• Filed under: Music Recommendations: afterglow, review, soma, vector lovers

On the cover of ‘Afterglow’, Martin Wheeler is pictured standing in the middle of a field with a group of his friends.

The photograph was taken nearly 30 years ago when Wheeler was a kid, but the image has more than just nostalgia for the past.

It’s a reminder of a happier, more innocent time, a sentiment that the now 36-year-old producer also articulates in the music.

Unlike Vector Lovers first two albums, the slickly futuristic electro of ‘Vector Lovers’ and ‘Capsule For One’, ‘Afterglow’ looks to the past: some of the tracks are based on his early recording sessions from the late ‘80s, united with Wheeler’s pop-based modern productions.

It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but ‘Afterglow’ has a cohesive, albeit rawer and more organic than usual sound.

‘Hush Now’, one of the newer tracks, sounds like an electronic lullaby, ‘Crash Premonition’ tells a morbid tale about car crashes, while the album’s highlight is the sprawling epic, ‘A Field’.

Radically different to Vector Lovers’ usual playful pop, its backwards-sampled flute and death march pace makes it the centre-piece of Wheeler’s reverie for his childhood.

If you’re looking to hear what the future of the past sounds like, start here.

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