SIMON MCKECHNIE
Retro BAD ELEPHANT MUSIC
Hugely ambitious and expertly realised collection from new BEM signing.
E
asy descriptions and neat pigeonholes completely fail to capture the essence of multiinstrumentalist and songwriter Simon McKechnie’s Retro. Opening track The Origin Of Species alone is split into eight parts over 20 minutes, moving dizzyingly through different musical sections and time signatures with abandon, and building an entire lyric utilising only text from Charles Darwin’s historic treatise. There are lots of notes, but they’re woven into tapestries of sound to be unpicked at over a considered pace of time rather than shredded out, prog metal style.