Karma Surround is a duo made up of Darren Roy and his brother Michael from Fife, who recently released their debut album, the remarkable Songs Lost in the Meantime. They have been releasing songs over the last year or so via Bandcamp. Towards the end of the year finally putting together their album.
This is a charmingly captivating piece of work, made up as it is of ten sublime jangly indie pop, acoustic folky slices of good karma inducing instant musical sunshine. And what is remarkable is that these were all recorded in a makeshift home studio, mixed and full band songs mastered by Alex Wharton for a sum total of £250.
The ten songs are a mixture of full blooded gloriously textured guitar pop, packed with those jangly guitars that were such a signature across a wealth of bands in the early 80s “sound of young Scotland”, and those which take on a more stripped back acoustic guitar and harmonica led approach, much like that favoured by the “should have been massive” River Detectives back in the mid 80s.
Stars of the Last Magnitude opens the album sounding like a young version of The Bluebells while songs like Shining Beat, Ticket to Liberty and Let’s Stay in Today are prime examples of their stripped back harmonica and acoustic guitar tracks, paired with a moving hopeful vocal that verges on the melancholic, Ticket to Liberty bordering on early Radiohead territory.
Keep on Man brings the psychedelic sixties into the mix while the guitar throughout Do You Wonder? positively sings, the chorus asking the pondering question of the song title. Good Morning Lassitude immediately follows and continues to bring the sunshine with its 60’s West Coast vibe.
I love this album and band, I wholeheartedly admire and support what they have achieved with minimal budget, and while I would never want to take away the love and passion that has gone into these recordings, I’d love to hear what they could do with these songs given some proper studio time and a bit of a bigger budget. Regardless of this, I will be listening to these songs whenever I need a wee mood boost.
Get over to Bandcamp now and support Karma Surround. The album is available as a “choose your price” download.
Thanks so much Neil. Absolutely love this review.