Hipsway - Smoke & Dreams (2018)

The first new Hipsawy album since 1989's SCRATCH THE SURFACE. For Smoke & Dreams Hipsway set themselves up in a small studio without headphones or separation and played live – the old way. This has left the record with a certain soul/charm/rawness/depth – call it what you want but repeated plays will reward the listener, with small details popping out here and there. And as if that wasn’t enough the album has a casserole of great tunes with a handful of disco and soul flavours, a grinding of new wave, a few twists of art rock and a shake of good honest pop.

Thematically the songs are about deception – be that by ‘the self’ or on a grander ‘fake news’ scale – hence the album title. Nostalgia plays its part in a let’s-learn-from-our-mistakes attitude. Musically, influences cover the art-pop of Bowie and Radiohead to the earthy funk of the Meters and Funkadelic and much more besides.