New Law

Steve Cobby's newest album- The New Law Of Righteousness- joins a long list of solo albums he's released in recent years, Sweet Jesus, Nostalgia Intensa, Stevie (written in Cyrillic script), I Loved You All My Life and Shanty Bivouac. All these albums are full of Steve's signature grooves, jazzy keys and guitar playing, pianos, acoustic/ folk guitar, mellotrons and Fender Rhodes, live drums and drum machines and bumping basslines, running the gamut from funk and jazz to ambient and Balearic. Each one is full of good tunes from start to finish as well as songs that have made huge connections with me- As Good As Gold on Sweet Jesus, Swimming In Amber of Nostalgia Intensa, both 45ft Tide and Life And Consciousness And Mind And Memory And Thought And All Creation from Shanty Bivouac and Dandylion Clocks on Stevie have all been big favourites round here and songs I go back time and time again. 

The New Law Of Righteousness, available to listen and buy at Bandcamp, is no exception, ten songs long and the usual high quality of writing and playing evident from the moment you first click Play, an album with depth that really rewards playing through in its entirety. It seems unfair to pick out any of the songs over any of the others but these three are my current highlights- 

Tang Ping starts out with synths and flute, a big 70s synth bassline and finger picked  acoustic guitar. At one minutes thirty it finds a groove and turns into a lovely, languid summer soundtrack, a synth topline wiggling its way onwards. 

Bernal Spheres is a warm and inviting four minutes, with a metronomic drum pattern, 70s synth sounds, electric piano and a lovely buzzing bassline.

All The Faith I Had Had Had Had No Effect has more of that fluid, folky acoustic guitar that decorates so many of his songs, eventually with two or three guitars playing with each other, melodies twisting and circling around each other.