Wonderful words by the ever erudite Adam Turner.

At the start of October Coyote released their latest album, “Go With The Tide”. It’s a 7-track dive into the familiar, dubby,, cosmic Balearica that they’re known for, but once again the duo come up with some tunes that really know how to stick themselves to you… and again demonstrate that with Coyote repeated plays are everything: what might at first sound simple often has many layers and details that only reveal themselves gradually.

“Palo Santo” opens the album, a warm, fat bassline prodding away, while pipes and a swirl of FX evoke summer melodies. A chanted vocal appears, and things snap into focus a little, but it’s all still very blurry and hinted at. The memory of a feeling.  “Meow Meow” throbs and burps, with another cut up vocal fragment and a gorgeous, gossamer synth part that comes and goes. Various elements – synths, keys, chirrups – fade in and out, all the while the bass and percussion easing things along.

The title track then slows down to a crawl, and throws in another voice, this one FXed so it’s difficult to make it out fully. There’s another laidback B-line too, pushing gently. ‘I won’t lie to her, give her peace of mind… I just go with the tide’, so it goes. More fragments, more suggestions. There’s a shift halfway through, a stop / start, and it feels like the same track, though something’s changed. A woodwind fades in, and someone sings, ‘We’ve only just begun’, repeated again and again. Synth bass. Late, Indian, summer heat. Hand drums. Rushes of cosmic noise.

The drums kick in on “Phat Lip”, then come the descending bottom end and synth lines – a collision of some very late 80s Balearica with the space and feel of dub. While the bass is up front; there’s a lot going on in the foreground, and the backdrop of synthetic drones is also rich. Tactical use of a ‘Way-oh way-oh‘ sample makes for something sweetly tripped out.

The set closes with the one-two punch of “The Point” and “Never Forget”. The first is hazy, slightly disoriented psychedelic Balearic, the sounds of a half-remembered dream that you know will be gone in a moment, leaving you with just an ache. The latter is a soulful, dubby song, again with a vocal that’s slightly buried and indistinct. Keyboard chords push and pull. Whirling FX. Everything is a little out of reach, like last summer. It’s gone. You can still feel it, still remember the sun on your skin if you try hard enough, but it’s mainly memories. Quite a thing, to be able to do all this with music.

Coyote’s “Go With The Tide” can be ordered directly from Universal Cave.

You can find more proper, on point, prose from Adam Turner over at his own brilliant blog, The Bagging Area. Adam is also part of the admin at the mighty Flightpath Estate.