Dana Gavanski's last album, When It Comes, was one of the highlights of 2022. It was a glorious yet enigmatic re-emergence after a fallow period in which she lost the use of her voice. It was the sound of an artist whose confidence in her own often mesmerising creations was growing almost tangibly. Confidence manifests itself in many forms on When It Comes: it was there in the subtlety of the melodies, the quick blending of disparate genres, the easy assimilation of influences from Bach to Broadcast via Paul McCartney. But an even more easily recognisable sign of confidence is risk, and the willingness to embrace it, and Gavanski's new album, Late Slap, bursts with risky moments.
There are songs here - and plenty of them - that are unlike anything else in her back catalogue. It's not so much a change in style but an urge to push every song a little further in its natural direction of travel: things seem both more polished and closer to some unknown edge. On Let Them Row, for example, melodic complexity is embraced, giving the song a multifaceted appeal without losing sight of the catchy chorus that pulls everything together. This balancing act has the welcome effect of making the strange seem normal and rendering the normal strange.
Gavanski's risk-taking is most obvious in the opening song, How To Feel Uncomfortable. It's a song that urges us to step beyond what comes easily, to embrace strangeness and difference. Musically speaking, it practises what it preaches: an intro of such immediacy that it makes you feel like you've arrived late, an off-kilter chorus which is punchier than anything she has previously recorded, a final section punctuated by emancipated yelps. It drives forward on ascending guitar lines and dramatic backing vocals - there are echoes of mid-70s Richard Thompson but also early-80s Peter Gabriel and a touch of Roxy Music: folk-rock meets poppy, proggy new wave.
Late Slap's production allows its songs to bloom in strange arrays. Gavanski enlisted the help of James Howard - who has previously worked with Alabaster dePlume and Rozi Plain - and Tunng's Mike Lindsay. These days, Lindsay is one-half of LUMP along with Laura Marling, and there are notable, if perhaps superficial, similarities between Marling and Gavanski, both in terms of writing and singing. Lindsay's keen ear lets him make the most of both singers' idiosyncrasies. Gavanski benefits particularly on songs like the title track, which splits itself neatly into interconnected segments in order to explore disparate musical side-alleys, or the languid synth-led pop of Singular Coincidence. Song For Rachel uses methods that are traditionally associated with coldness - stabbing synths, Nico-like vocals - and softens the corners just a little. It makes the emotional hit of the lyrics even more powerful when it comes.
The other really noticeable thing about Late Slap is how it appeals directly to the senses. Every moment feels like an invitation to immersion. From the choppy, new-wave rhythms of Ears Were Growing (which seems haunted by XTC and the Talking Heads) to the sweet star-struck strum of Eye On Love, these are songs concerned with the inextricable link between experience and feeling. Ribbon, particularly with its lopes, lilts and twists, is deliciously multisensory, giving the listener a chance to engage with the grief and loss in the lyrics. Gavanski seems to coat her songs with a lacquer, altering their colours ever so slightly and making them more tactile.
There is a surprise around every one of Late Slap's many corners, from the driving art-rock of Dark Side to the playful, Eastern-influenced melodies that balance out the soul-searching lyrics of Reiteration. These surprises are born from risk, and when an artist foregrounds their risk-taking this way, it really has to come off. In Gavanski's case, it does so spectacularly. Late Slap is a detailed and accomplished work with a fleshy and often complex sound which never gets in the way of the inherently airy melodicism.
22nd - Brighton The Albert 24th - Norwich Arts Centre 25th - Ramsgate Music Hall 27th - Bristol Beacon 29th - Manchester SOUP 30th - Wharf Chambers Leeds 31st - The Hug & Pint Glasgow
June
1st - The Common Room Newcastle 4th - The Lower Third London
LATE SLAP released 5th April on vinyl, CD and digital via Full Time Hobby. Pre-order various formats here.
