Gravity

Album Review

Declan Flynn literally wears his worldly influences on his sleeve in this, his debut album, with the digipack opening out into a compass replete with scenes from all four corners of the globe. Flynn's previous career of composing music for film and TV becomes apparent within the opening seconds of the appropriately titled "First Transmission": Muezzin calls conjure rich melodies from luscious orchestration, while shuffling breakbeat drops only add to the spaciousness of the track. Although heavily sample-oriented, a peppering of real instrumentation — whether Mark Oebomo's thick layers of bass, the soaring violin parts of Saskia Tomkin, or the occasional touch of live percussion — lends a welcome organic richness to the album. Despite the odd twee twinge, with the title track an ill-advised forage into breakbeat balladeering, the organic elements lend a sense of Craig Armstrong-like grandeur to much of the material, ensuring that Gravity delivers in its aspirations of fusion and reinforcing Flynn's reputation as a producer to watch.