Matter - St Lucia

A lifetime of music study and meticulous attention to detail by St. Lucia’s masterbrains Jean-Philip Grobler is at the crux of the determined drive behind the growing catalogue of high end material in the South African’s band repertoire.

That Grobler’s St. Lucia pop outfit’s debut album “When The Night” wasn’t marketed to the UK can be looked upon as a music criminality as the release gained considerable favour throughout the territories that took on it’s deliverance of pristine pop crafting. A decision now overturned by the UK rush release prior to the arrival of the equally accomplished sophomore follow-up “Matter“.

The “When The Night” debut was defined solely by Groblers direct artistry, in that the multifaceted musician exercised the fullest range of his talent by his daring execution as instrumentalist, vocalist, lyricist made quite the one-man-band operation.

The realisation that being a one-man-outfit although being very self satisfying, is in itself also very time consuming . So in venturing into a follow-up, it made the best sense to bring both outside collaborators and St. Lucia’s live band set-up into the creation of the new material.

By bringing these extra hands onboard it has enabled Grobler’s St. Lucia’s identity to become that much more expansive, allowing the flow of creative chemistry to course through the albums entirety with the same level of dogged determination which impacted upon the debut, long playing effort.

As a result “Matter” is an album which showcases a stream of effervescent melodies, headed up by the full band sound experience, of drums, guitars and much to our liking a whole lot of synth-pop muscle.

To pluck out album highlights is nigh on a non viable action as the sophomore album complete is one which dispatches a consummate performance of pop sensible attainment. Carried equally by the unwavering level of high energy impact.

From the get go, the rousing chords of “Do You Remember” set the impenetrable ball of dance-pop velocity into unstoppable motion, working it’s way through its track listing which takes in island tropical vibes, sound byte after sound byte before coming to a mid-way rest point of dreamy reflection on the sumptuously sonically imbued “Love Somebody“.

In amongst the glittering array of pop gems housed within “Matter“, “Dancing On Glass” and “Physical” have already been singled out as statement pieces for the release, but in as much that there is an extensive source of rich pickings for future focus singles, one so obviously and deservedly in the frame for such adoration must surely be the infectiously catchy “Game 4 U“.

For lovers of synth-pop “Matter” is a good start to the year. Nothing but solid musicianship and a whole lot of ambition have gone into making this album one which is from beginning to end, immersively enjoyable without the usual moments you’d wanna skip past. There is none such stepping stones on “Matter” it just concentrates on Jean-Philip’s St. Lucia giving out their consummate best at all times.

Pre-order “Matter” by St. Lucia – releases 29.01.16