- Martin Stimming lays on a tapas of moods, tempos and melodies on the Window Shopping EP. There are symphonic strings, a doleful woodwind, Rhodes pianos, fucked violins… oh and that odd, vibrating percussion sound which he's made his own. The one that sounds like a galleon listing to starboard.
But while there are still traces of his previously minimal approach, this is grown-up Stimming, indulging his lust for orchestration and organic grooves. The latter is starkly evident on the chirpy title track. With James Blake-ian autotuned vocals for company, he spreads on soulful 4 Hero strings and a fidgety rhythm, filling the spaces in between with jazzy inflections.
The counterpoint to the intricate opener is "The Song." Not much more than a crunchy, cut-up handclap accompanying a soft-shoe shuffle and metronomic kick drum, what gives it humanity is Lazarusman's Mark Murphy-esque narration, the regular Stimming collaborator proselytising about the healing benefit of writing songs. In stark contrast, "November Morning" is a moodshift down, klezmer clarinets winding their way across a soundbed of Arctic synths and incidental field recordings. From glee to melancholia in three easy steps.
Tracklist A The Song feat. The Lazarusman
B1 Window Shopping
B2 November Morning