Short Reviews [ Roman Spektor - 2020 - "Functionality"]

This is the debut album from Israeli singer and multi-instrumentalist Roman Spektor, although he did release an EP, ‘Moss’, back in 2016. Here he provides everything apart from Gali Spektor who plays alto saxophone on two songs and Didi S.B. who provides additional vocals on another. This is a very modern jagged take on progressive rock, combining electronica with XTC, prog with pop, and even bringing in folk at times. Often at the core is more of a hip-hop rhythm, which definitely gives the music a different flavour to much of what is currently around. His vocals are also more of an indie/alterative style, less emotional and more one-dimensional. In many ways that is also how I feel about the album. Although there is actually a lot going on, and there are some interesting counterpoints between stringed instruments and electronic, it somehow keeps quite shallow and as a listener I felt I was never immersed in what was going on, but rather paddling through and splashing as opposed to being enveloped. It is brittle as opposed to solid, and in many ways quite unsettling as I could never really relax into what was going. Not truly experimental, nor fitting in with any standard styles, it is something which needs to be listened to, and for me having done so I am unlikely to do so again.