Pre-Order: Alba Ambar * Tambores En Benirras [LP]

Three years on from the release of his critically acclaimed second album as Tambores en Benirras, Graham Newby returns with album number two, a glorious celebration of the mystical, magical, and life-affirming musical meditation on stretched-out sunrises and the breathtaking beauty of dawn.Newby has more reason that most to cherish picturesque and soul-enriching sun-up moments. During the process of making his last album Onda Horizontales, the long-serving Cumbrian DJ, crate-digger, beat-maker, and producer's sight deteriorated to such a degree that he was certified as 'registered blind'. As a result, new working methods were found, with Newby delivering widescreen Balearic visions as much from muscle memory and feel as from the visual environmental cues that once fired his imagination.Third album Alba Amba - 'amber dawn' in English - finds Newby in dawn-ready mode, serving up music to soundtrack stunning sunrises and those clear early morning moments where anything seems possible. It's a simple idea, beautifully executed, with the artist once known as Gripper conjuring up a meditative and mesmerizing mix of slow-burn aural colors, tactile textures, gradually unfurling chords, and heady melodic motifs.Newby sets his stall out with the smoldering, pre-dawn bliss of the jaw-dropping title track, where reverb-laden female vocalizations and twinkling electronics usher in a golden dawn, before reaching for shimmering, sun-bright melodies, heart-stirring chords, and undulating TB-303 lines on the ambient acid chug of 'Bucanero Acido'.Newby's instinctive grasp of mood and texture comes to the fore on the drifting, soft-focus ambient dub head-nod of 'No Se Me Pasa', where strummed acoustic guitars, echoing vocal samples, and weighty low-end warmth catch the ear, while his history of dusty downtempo beat-making (originally explored on his early 2000s releases for Grand Central Records) informed the dancehall-meets-trip-hop fusion of 'Batalla de Etiquettas'. With it's epic, head-turning ambient intro, raw electronic bass, effects-laden hand percussion and slow, restless build, this triumphant closing cut signals the moment the sun has well and truly arrived above the horizon. It's a genuinely stunning conclusion to a soul-stirring set.