Simian Mobile Disco – Murmurations

When a flock of birds forms a murmuration, they create a shape-shifting mass that swoops and twists at will. As the Deep Throat Choir wrap their vocals around each other and Simian Mobile Disco further chop and mould these loops, a similar phenomenon occurs. On their new album Murmurations, James Ford and Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco and the Hackney-based vocal collective come together to harness this force, marrying together the raw, organic nature of group singing with techno and electronica.

The results are often euphoric and heart-racing, splitting the difference between pulsating, dancefloor-filling beats and more avant-garde tendencies. Mirroring the fluidity of the bird flocks the album is named after, Ford and Shaw’s beats are pulsating yet malleable, sometimes steely and almost industrial, but at other times more organic, as on soaring, transformative epic We Go. Meanwhile, the aptly named Gliders strikes a delicately poised balance between airy vocals and glitch-ridden electronics.

That’s essentially the magic underpinning Murmurations. Simian Mobile Disco and the Deep Throat Choir entwine their worlds, embracing rather than combatting one another. In-between more beat-heavy moments, Ford and Shaw give space for the collective to breathe, while the Choir’s own looping, layered vocals often become like a kind of synthesiser in itself. It’s a creative, energised exploration of the power of both the human voice and electronic music to move us.

Listen to: Boids, We Go