SHCAA - No Moon At All, What A Night (Sealed) (LP)

Shcaa shows off his artistry once more on stunning new album, No Moon At All, What a Night, which lands on Apollo. Paris based Shcaa makes abstract and emotional electronic music. The producer, composer and guitarist is meticulous in his use of space and time, arranging harmonies, rhythm and texture with a rare sensibility. He combines the synthetic and the organic and transcendent ways and has done so on the likes of Sharingtones, Archival and Grow before now landing on Apollo. This new album emerged from recording sessions first started in NYC in autumn 2017 and is one heavily influenced by nocturnal urban moods. No Moon At All, What a Night is made up of dense synthesised soundscapes, layered with rich melodies and harmonies that were composed on guitar. The artist explains more, saying, “I wanted the album to reflect a certain period of my life, the process of recognizing illusions, leaving them behind, discerning the important things, like shapes emerging from the dark. It is less hidden behind experimentalism than my first one. It is more lyrical when it needs to be but also draws more openly on club energy in some instances.” The record opens with introspective and downbeat offering Faroh's Bird before melting into the lullaby like melodies and lilting grooves of 'Auguries' which is subtle yet uplifting. The off-beat Moralia layers up more freeform and jazzy chords with lumpy rhythms and closely mic'ed vocals to enthralling effect. After the slick dub techno hypnosis of Oons Ide come the gorgeous keys and spoken word vocal musings of If You Fall, then the lush piano interlude Sometime. The second half of this most alluring album takes in deep, driving rhythms on Sister, hot and steamy, lo-fi r&B on When Eternity and cosmic soundscapes on Until We Meet. Excellent breakbeats and pitch shifted vocal sounds make Fantastic a dream-like trip then 'Aurora' closes with some eerie and cavernous ambient that provokes deep contemplation. This album shows true artistic maturity and honest expression that results in a richly rewarding listen and another real winner from the Apollo labe