Karen Gwyer - Needs Continuum

Karen Gwyer’s life changed, not once, but twice throughout ‘Needs Continuum’’s creation. For one, it’s her debut album. But more importantly, she was months away from giving birth to her son during recording: the experience, as she recalls, was “loaded with anticipation, nerves and thrills.’ You’d think this moment would have turned the record into a hodge-podge of panic and urgency but that’s certainly not the case here. ‘Needs Continuum’ carries on from where her previous EP left off: Gwyer parents a frosty ambience that chills the ear whilst skeletal percussion – influenced by her love of Malian music – ripples like pebble-struck water.

It is stiffly automated in places – see the droning menace of opener ‘Sugar Tots’ for example – and this is very much an electronic record. But this LP’s charms lie in those electronic beats giving life to ambient, organic warmth, no doubt a mood influenced by Gwyer’s pregnancy. ‘Lentil’ is a haven of breathy sighs and easygoing bass by way of Errors-meets Trentemøller; the serene pulses of ‘Waukon’ eventually give way to glossy swirls; ‘Pikku Kokki’s minimal house is made all the more enticing by Gwyer’s spectral hush.

Yet beneath the lush ambience lies a broodier side where Gwyer occasionally ventures into more menacing retreats. ‘Some Of My Favourite Lotions’ abandons its electro-tribal atmosphere and takes an excursion into the screechy-scratchy territories of Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer,’ as does ‘Trapezoidal Weekly.’ It’s a welcome diversion that prevents the record’s mood from becoming too stale.

Everything ends on ‘Part B,’ a surprising shift resembling early Sigur Rós: filled with slow, glacial swells and airy gasps, it’s frostier than a pack of Halls extra strong cough sweets.

‘Needs Continuum’ manages to take an otherwise robotic genre and make it natural. It’s a slow, hypnotic record but hits you fast regardless. The birth of a child is a proud moment for any parent and Gwyer can place this album alongside that experience.