Looking at Colours Again
Vox Liminis is proud to present ‘Looking at Colours Again’, a new EP from the Distant Voices project.
A rewarding listen from start to finish, featuring 5 compelling, genre-spanning tracks. Despite the variation in style, a sonic thread runs throughout: vintage drum machines and synths feature on all the tracks, recalling electronic music of the 1970s & 80s.
The EP was produced by Distant Voices Artistic Lead, Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow), with Paul Savage (Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand) at Chem19 studios.
The tracks were co-written by musicians Donna Maciocia, Ross Clark (Fiskur), Jo Mango & Louis Abbott with participants in workshops in prisons across Scotland. The evolution of the songs involved continued collaboration, from the initial songwriting, into discussions around arrangements, and on to participation in the recording process itself.
Across the EP the themes of both repetition and change recur, creating an intriguing tension. The EP’s opening track, Rewind, is about how regret loops in the mind along with the nagging yet unattainable desire to ‘Rewind, record over, rewrite the scenes’. The effect is intensified by an infectious chorus which hooks you from the first listen. In the anthemic Bars and Multicoloured Chairs, Alana prepares for the momentous change of leaving prison but reflects on whether the world outside will understand how much she has taken away from the experience. Little Foxes is about not wanting to fall back into a damaging pattern (in this case, addiction) and the human struggle to constantly manage our vices, even when they ‘turn up at the most bizarre times.’
For all the challenges, Looking at Colours Again also offers comfort. Peace is found in memories and nature. In the mesmerising Everything’s Spherical, cycles of nature and the universe put our everyday struggles into context (“Whatever’s happening has happened before”) while Leap from the Noise – inspired by a peaceful childhood memory- is a celebration of silence, and the necessity of allowing ourselves some relief from pain and regret (or endless ‘rewinding’).
There’s a sense of accepting what can’t be changed – whether that’s realising that temptations will always be part of life (cleverly depicted through the metaphor of ‘little foxes’ which are, as the co-writers note, “beautiful and intriguing animals but they are also pesky, annoying & will eat away at you”), or walking into the unknown with courage and open-mindedness (Bars and Multicoloured Chairs).
Looking at Colours Again seeks to bring these stories to a wider audience, in order to challenge conventional understandings of ‘offender rehabilitation’ and to offer a better understanding of the ways people are received when they ‘come home’ after punishment.
‘Looking at Colours Again’ is available now at