Simon Scott - Navigare

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 19 / 2 / 2010

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Simon Scott has now released a lot of records, but this is his first release with just his name on it. He started life in the music business as the drummer with indie pop act the Charlottes before moving on to drum for shoegazing pioneers and Creation Records act Slowdive. After leaving Slowdive, he took a long break from music, but infused his brain with rare vinyl and absorbing other treasures of a musical variety. I first met him over ten years ago when he returned to live music with a band called Inner Sleeve. That lasted a few years before he then formed Televise, which began as a band but then became his solo project. He has also since 2007 been playing in Seavault, a group that he formed with Isan’s Antony Ryan. ‘Navigare’ is an album that, while hinting at his past, shows Simon growing as an artist. It is an album that moves on and finds him displaying his new influences. It opens with ‘Introduction of Cambridge'. Cambridge is his home town and he has recently returned to it after some years living in London. It has a slow-moving, ambient sound, is very cinematic and prepares you for the journey which the rest of ‘Navigare’ will take you on. It features soft acoustic guitar and gentle drums and it is as graceful as the first Slowdive album, ‘Just Another Day’. ‘Under Crumbling Skies’ starts off with thundering clouds that recalls the Doors’ ‘Riders on a Storm’, until slo-core instruments join in, completing chilling you to your very core and also relaxing your mind and head. ‘Flood Inn’ is much louder, It has an almost industrial sound and is very soundscape-based. ‘Derelict Days’ is an ambient and chilled-out post-rock number. It is very eerie in sound, reminding me of the part of the soundtrack in ‘Alien’ me in which John Hurt goes into the spaceship before getting attacked and become the alien's host. ‘Repulse’ again has something of ‘Alien’ and is very creepy. ‘The ACC’ carries on in similar territory until a single jangling guitar makes an appearance and gives it a cool ambient feel. ‘The Old Jug and Drum’ is beautifully textured and chills you out so much that if you put this on late at night it will relax you to the point of sleep. ‘Ashma’ again just washes over you beautifully. It has a sea of sound that Slowdive fans will be pleased with. ‘Spring Stars’ similarly again washes over you and relaxes you to your very soul. ‘The Night and the Artificial Light’ has a title that makes it sound like something that the Editors have written, but it again sounds like a film soundtrack. You feel with it that something eerie is about to happen and just around the corner. ‘Navigare’ is a lovely album from a very gifted guy.

Track Listing:-

1 Introduction Of Cambridge
2 Under Crumbling Skies
3 Flood Inn
4 Derelict Days
5 Repulse
6 The ACC
7 The Old Jug And Drum
8 Ashma
9 Spring Stars
10 The Night and The Artificial Light

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