This second record by the players of About Group is an attempt to form order from chaos, to take the essence of their initial open-ended jam sessions and filter it into perceptible structure. Their first album together was simply recorded under the last names of the four musicians involved-- Charles Hayward of This Heat, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, John Coxon of Spiritualized/Spring Heel Jack, and Derek Bailey associate Pat Thomas. That record was recorded in one day, with no prior practice, and released on the Treader label in 2009. The four lengthy improvisations were loose, fun, and occasionally whimsical. No one was surprised they returned to their day jobs once it was complete. Instead, they've done some fine-tuning to their methodology, adopted the About Group moniker, and signed to indie behemoths Domino. Start and Complete was also recorded in one day, at Studio 2 at Abbey Road, but this time Taylor handed out demos for certain tracks so his fellow musicians had a vague idea what to expect.
The result is that the rough edges have been shaved down and tamed. Many of the free-floating ideas have been constrained and refined into discipline, all topped off by Taylor's earnest vocalizing, which mines similar territory to his former collaborator Robert Wyatt. In truth, Taylor has a more limited range than Wyatt. But he knows how to find that same buckle in his voice, where it feels like he might slip out of tune at any minute but the weight of emotion he's conveying more than makes up for it. The singer talked about Tim Buckley's marrying of folk aesthetics with astral-jazz projections in a recent interview, but that's only one of many touchstones to surface on Start and Complete. Krautrock, Hammond organ-propelled soul, country-ish guitar plucking, and buckets of primal Brian Eno-eque electronics also play a large role in shaping the About Group sound.
There are 14 tracks on this record, but a handful of them are barely more than a minute or two long. The most impressive feat, considering the limitation they were working under, is how complete the longer songs sound. "Don't Worry" is a jaunty pop number that bears a verse-chorus-verse structure and a squelchy wah-wah guitar solo at its center; the following "With Each New Day" is a tender ballad punctured by gloops of analog synth that reflect Stevie Wonder's 70s peak on Innervisions. A cursory listen to either track would not reveal their improvised roots to the uninitiated. But sometimes the seams do show. "A Perspective" never finds direction beyond its basic piano and organ arrangement, with Hayward's late-entry drums sounding like he's lost for something to do before the track sags to a close. Sometimes fragments of ideas are cut frustratingly short-- "There's a Way to End This Run of Doubt" sounds like it's about to flourish into a wonderful soft-pop track before being abruptly cut after just 45 seconds.
But these are minor quibbles-- the bulk of Start and Complete feeds off a rich seam of melancholia that the four players intuitively tap into. The twin highlights are "Lay Me Down" and the cover of Harvey Averne/Terry Riley's "You're No Good". The former is a tale of troubled love that bridges the sad and the frivolous sides of the band, with its dolorous keyboard textures and yearning vocal stylings set to playful bleeps and bloops. With "You're No Good" they return to the territory mapped out on that first record and bolt it to some of the ideas from this one, allowing their blue-eyed soul crooning to filter into choppy grooves and organ soloing that sounds like Brian Auger jamming with Jaki Liebezeit. Occasionally the mid-tempo range that exerts a lockhold on the band can feel a little same-y, and it's surprisingly trad at times considering the experimental background of the players involved. But Start and Complete ultimately achieves what it sets out to do, which is to place a song-oriented frame around another off-the-cuff session by these four disparate talents, who will no doubt spin off in a completely different direction should About Group reconvene.
