Album Review: The Kite String Tangle - The Kite String Tangle

For an artist who emerged from the notoriously eclectic and spontaneous group Pigeon, The Kite String Tangle's Danny Harley has always been remarkably precise in his work. In some cases, almost overly so. While understandably widely embraced, Harley's early solo work seemed almost too delicate and beautiful; bordering on fragile.

But his long-gestating debut solo album redresses that potential shortcoming. While equally as considered and precise as his early successes, The Kite String Tangle has a beautiful undercurrent of business ebbing and flowing beneath Harley's golden vocals. It was hinted at in single The Prize — which moved from a stripped-back pulse into a blissful explosion of shivering electronics with each chorus — and the album's remaining tracks deliver on that promise.

Harley has a knack for crafting irresistible, unique grooves from small fragments of colour and percussion. Combined with his yearning vocal style and an eclectic sense of dynamics, this creates an album that's simply a joy to explore. Opener Waiting has a clean, UK-funky snap to its old-school breakbeats, but Know By Now is decorated with Floydian/Flaming Lips textural flourishes. It's a record that's consistently surprising but never jarring.

One of the best Australian electronic albums in some time.