You wouldn’t know it from the surface, but every time Sam Healy releases new music, he’s tinged with self-doubt. Imposter syndrome, the North Atlantic Oscillation mainman says. And this time around, that nagging worry has been exacerbated by a five-year wait between albums.
“At some point you’re going to write your last good album,” the musician says from his home in Edinburgh. “Everyone is going to do that at some point. The question is: is it the last one? That’s the worry.”
Judging by United Wire, the latest album from the forward-thinking electronic prog outfit, the multi-instrumentalist need not worry. It’s been half a decade since the last record, 2018’s beguiling Grind Show, and the project – NAO are effectively a one-man-show with Healy at the helm – continues to be in fine fettle.
For , the title of which was inspired by a company name on the side of a building the musician would see on cycles during lockdown, North Atlantic Oscillation continue theelectronic textures and masses of melancholic melody. The only ‘real’ instrumentation here are vocals, electric and acoustic guitar and clarinet, with the rest – including the trademark layered, velvety soundscapes – conjured through the wonders of technology. The first single released from the record, for instance, was , a track that swells with chaotic, Squarepusher-esque electronic intensity before dissolving into a serene sense of melancholic calm that would be a snug fit on a modern-day Radiohead record.
