Insides - Soft Bonds (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Sublime first new recordings in 20 years by 4AD’s original dream-pop experimenters J. Tardo and Kirsty Yates as Insides - RIYL Nouvelle Vague, To Rococo Rot, Slowdive.

Formerly known as Earwig between ’89-’93, before forming Insides with a now sought-after album and singles for 4AD shortly thereafter, Tardo and Yates also issued one album of Nouvelle Vague-like gallic pop and acid jazz with 2000’s ‘Sweet Tip’ and promptly exited stage left until only recently. They now return to something closer to their original style on ‘Soft Bonds’, reprising a tenderly bleary and endearing sound warmly defined by Kirsty Yates’ breathy, languorous vocals and subtle, supple, carefully minimalist production by J. Tardo that’s prone to exquisite surprises.

The shrugging title of ‘It Was Like This Once, It Will Be Like This Again’ acknowledges a timelessness to their sound that oozes thru on their woozy opener, while they sweetly embrace a sort of Berlin-esque electro-pop minimalism realign To Rococo Rot in ‘Ghost Music’, setting parameters they come to explore in variegated strains of icily puckered synth-pop on ‘Misericord’, and the tip-of-tongue sensuality to ‘The Softest Bonds resist Resistance’ in the album’s first half. At the album’s core they make room for the chamber-like hush of ‘Subordinate’ setting more tender, semi-acoustic aesthetics that blossom into something like a drowsy, wilting Antenna on ‘Half Past 4’, and it all comes together in a a mix of the lovely glow of ‘Undressing.’

Tracklist:
1. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – It Was Like This Once, It Will Be Like This Again (03:22)
2. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – Ghost Music (03:06)
3. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – Misericord (06:10)
4. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – The Softest Bonds Resist Resistance (04:46)
5. Julian Tardo, Kirsty Yates, David Best & Simon Russell – Subordinate (07:19)
6. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold (03:57)
7. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – Thin Skin (01:43)
8. Julian Tardo, Kirsty Yates, Steve Thompson & Simon Russell – Half Past 4 (04:08)
9. Julian Tardo & Kirsty Yates – Undressing (04:02)


Thanks to the Original customer!