Silver Columns/ Yes, And Dance

Silver Columns
Yes, And Dance
(Moshi Moshi Records)

As the title for their debut LP might suggest, Silver Columns have envisaged this as a record to dance to – but regardless, it would have been hard to predict all the percussive booby traps in store for us on 'Yes And Dance'.
This pair are possibly better known as Adem and The Pictish Trail, though this record represents a whole new venture and some unexpected adventures for the duo.
Silver Columns match inventiveness with melody and a very detached, regional sounding vocal, as evidenced on ‘Cavalier’. These combine to form a similar cinematic scene in your head to the one in The Matrix where all the 0s and 1s go zooming past, punctuated by scuttling and diverse drum sounds.
The percussive claustrophobia of the first half gets swapped for breathing space as the record progresses, with the spatial ‘Columns’ providing 3D dual vocals and a maze of bass burps and gently persuasive synths.
The contrast of these halves is most distinct with the appropriately titled ‘Warm Welcome’ and its childlike, softer sentiments. Consider this against the cardio workout of ‘Brow Beaten’, which takes things to a seriously Erasure-like state of abandon, and it seems Silver Columns might have made the most approachable pop record this side of 2010.