Bill Nelson

I do struggle with Bill Nelson. He is unquestionably talented – multitalented – and there are moments on every album that are positively sublime but I find it difficult sometimes to understand where his music is coming from and where he is taking the listener. I accept that this is my problem and not his but he does make me work to understand him. But, when you get an album like ‘After The Satellite Sings’, putting the work in is definitely worth it – this is possibly his finest album and even though it screams Polymath at the top of its voice it really does pay off.

The playing throughout is sublime and his use of samples and electro rhythms is positively brilliant. There are moments that remind me of Bowie at his most eclectic but also snatches of music that are breathtaking in their audacity. Nelson say, in the liner notes, that the album was recorded in 25 days after having entered the studio without a note or lyric written and the album definitely has that intensity of activity about it but it also holds together in the way that an entity can only do if it comes from a stream of consciousness uninterrupted by any other influences. He dedicated it to “the angelic presence of Jack Kerouac” and it has the flow and the coherence of ‘On The Road’ or #Desolation Angels’ but to the non-cog this won’t mean a damn thing because of that flow.

Normally I would pick out individual tracks or instruments for comment but that doesn’t work here – this is an album that has to be listened to as it was written; in a stream and without jumping around for the ‘best bits’.

To my mind this is the album that makes me want to listen to Nelson – just brilliant start to finish.