- Woolfy vs. Projections, AKA Simon "Woolfy" James and partner Dan Hastie, have long since perfected their brand of flip-flop boogie and easy-going rock. For their latest album, purportedly the final leg of a trilogy written about ZAZU's famed Balearic nugget "Captain Starlight," the pair return with another album of light-footed, psychedelic disco. Anyone who has followed the project, through 2008's The Astral Projections Of Starlight and 2012's The Return Of Love, will note how promptly Stations' thematic underpinnings can be forgotten. The kind of breezy, nostalgic songs the duo excel at lend themselves to steamy beaches and accidental sunburns, moments lost to wandering thought rather than storytelling.
Picking up where they left off with Tensnake collaboration "Nina," "Jackie" melds twilit synths with low-slung AM radio funk to open the album. The excellent "Missing You" mines the wounded heart-feel of predecessors "Electric Storms" and "Cherry Blossoms." Its Latin-flavored guitar strums from El Javi—recalling the likes of Javier Bergia—drift over a bassy bounce. The horns, guitar and soft-focus vocals of "The Bright Light Of The Truth" are so seemingly weightless the whole thing feels like it might be blown away on the slightest ocean breeze. Both "My Room" and the navel-gazing "Walkaway" repeat the quiet night ambience, settling pulses with gaseous synths and peaceful bongos.
For all of the Balearic folk on Stations, there are still moments when the duo get off the beach towel and work up their heartbeats. "Tangiers" is funky house music driven by synths and claps. "Set It Up" is a curious misleader: it starts with sputtering acoustic guitar and dubby, underwater flutes before blossoming into a disco strut. These moments don't take up much of the runtime, but they're critical in giving Stations some momentary relief from the stony daze.
Tracklist01. Jackie feat Michaela
02. Chances Are
03. Missing You feat El Javi
04. My Room
05. Set It Up
06. Combination
07. Walkaway
08. Tangiers
09. Who
10. The Bright Light Of The Truth
11. Stations