The Pop Corporation

‘More Forever’ was a massive Pop Corps favourite, even if it predates the site – languid, psychedelic nu-new age music that had nods toward the dreaded B word Balearic, City Pop, jazz, ’90s ambient and prog. It was improvisational and beautiful, with gently clicking drum machines, Frippertronic-esque guitar noodles, dreamy loops and spiralling synths, with the resulting music making you feel like someone had slipped you some low ABV acid, while you floated a foot off the grass, blissful and content.

And now we’ve got more Looking Suite and that is cause for comfortable celebration. New LP ‘A Hundred Or A Thousand Flowers’ carries on where the last one left off – notably, making you feel like you’re sinking into something warm and slowly floating upward.

‘Geode House’ has echoes of Tangerine Dream and the mighty Boards of Canada, while ‘Newly Moved’ and ‘Ask Me If I Remember’ takes us toward the ‘Coastlines’ LP (which, if you haven’t heard, you should – once you’ve bought this album), and the whole thing is very lightly pinned together with a deftness of touch and a lightness that feels like a tonic for the relentless cynicism that pervades a lot of newer releases.

Behind the whole thing is Chris Holland, who says the music is “improvised ambience recorded in a spare room in north Manchester”, yet this isn’t dowdy DIY folk with someone mad at their ex – this is truly cosmic music, in turn looking toward the stars as well as idling on a park bench thinking about feeding the ducks.

It’s not urgent music – but isn’t meant to be – this is the soundtrack to slacking off and having a nice time while you’re doing it. It’s the magnitude you feel while looking at a ginormous mountain – it’s the slightly drunk giddiness of lying on your back in the sun after some afternoon cans. This is music that’s as bewilderingly large or delicately intimate as you want it to be.

Album closer ‘To Zennor’ is a rock-pool of a track, both filled with life while being transparent and shimmering. There’s light and shade of course, but from start to finish, Looking Suite shows you why homemade psychedelic music has never been healthier. If you’re into ambient, or cosmic German music, or even folk and country, there’s something here for you.

Already, this is one of our favourite LPs released this year and if it’s anything like the last release, it won’t budge from our end of year lists. This is a seductive and gorgeous album and there’s no-one quite like Looking Suite.

Get on it. It’ll cure what ails you.

Now available on Spotify, but please consider purchasing via Bandcamp to support the artist.