Back in 2018 I was contacted by Stephen Latin-Kasper who had just recorded his debut album as Infinitwav and released it straight onto vinyl, which impressed me immensely. Fast forward to 2021 and he contacted me again, this time to ask if I would cast my ears over the mix of his new album and let him know what I thought? Listening to a mix for comment as opposed to review is a very different process as one is not discussing the music in terms of what it is like to listen to for enjoyment, but rather whether things sound balanced and together, and I made certain suggestions. Recently, the finished product arrived, and along with a few others I was thanked in the booklet for undertaking that work, but now it was time to listen to it in a very different manner, what is the album actually like?
Stephen’s debut was an ambitious piece of work, and the same can certainly be said for this one, as we have 18 songs about 9 concepts, a Yin and a Yang. While the lyrics and more information can be found on his informative website, the booklet contains lots of information about each concept. By trade, Stephen is an economist, and he is used to expressing his concepts and ideas in words, and this comes through very strongly in the booklet, so much so that it is difficult to imagine just listening to this as a digital download as looking at the booklet while playing the album definitely adds to the understanding. However, this use of words does mean that some of the ideas when portrayed in lyrics have some unusual scans in that they are deemed so important that they do not always quite fit the melody. That being said, there are some fascinating concepts here and Stephen does not shy away from being incredibly direct.
For the most part this is a solo project, with the majority of the instruments created digitally although there is a real drumkit, plus “real” guitarists on four tracks and female vocals on a few songs. It is an incredibly diverse album, with Talking Heads being an influence, and this is rooted in the early Eighties post punk period when anything seemed possible. He tends to keep his vocals in the mid-range, but when he wants to change that he can, and the lift in “War Zone Nerv” is a delight, as is the guitar from Ross Minagle. There is a sense of naivety and independence about this release, which is certainly interesting, and lyrically there is a great deal to take in.
Rating: 6/10
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Track list:
1. A Call to Mind
2. There Are Only 5 Tribes
3. The99
4. New State of Union
5. When Tears Just
6. War Zone Nerv
7. Cosmically Connected
8. PCV
9. Crystal Blue Skies
10. Living in the Third World
11. Woman Warrior
12. He’s a Batman
13. Stripping the Jesus
14. Time Knows No Master
15. My Mom Is In the Psych Ward
16. Cold Sweat
17. Infinitchill
18. Infinittrek
Links:
https://www.infinitwav.com/
