.

Perhaps Contraption have a new album, a most human album, a delight of an album called Nearly Human. “Nearly Human is the soundtrack to our gig theatre experience of the same name. We performed this show between 2018 – 2020” so say the many limbed London-based thing that is Perhaps Contraction – “Send me hope we are akin, Distant parts of one machine” –  the album describes the life-cycle of one extraordinary atom, and how this tiny, ancient, unfathomable thing travels through various lives and experiences on its journey through the aeons. “Partly inspired by cosmologist Carl Sagan, the piece contemplates how our baffling, unlikely existence is intertwined with the stars. Touching upon biology, spirituality and cosmology, Nearly Human is an epic and euphoric celebration of life and the universe”.

Perhaps Contraption have always had an abundance of colourful energy, energy in their songs, in their marching bands, in their delight with anything and everything. Nearly Human is a classic no holds bared proper concept album, dare we say a proper prog rock album? That idea will of course delight some of you, if you’re one of those who might recoil in horror, make no mistake, this is a delight, this is uplifting, this is, as experimental as it is, very easy on your ear.  This is “a concept piece expressing the wonder of atomic theory and human physiology, through the medium of massed brass and percussion” – it really is a delight, an album and a tale alive with detail,  with proper tunes, clever tunes, with theatrical colour – who knew science and songs about atoms and mass and bodies consisting of 78% water could be such a joy? The band, are they a band? A troupe? They themselves say “Avant-Rock, Art-Pop, Post-Classical, Marching Band, Something or other…”  hey look, you know the policy here, if we don’t like it we don’t bother covering it, the Bandcamp is down there, we’ve given you the basic idea, the Bandcamp is there, just hit play and find out for yourself. Perhaps Contraption have been delivering their delightfulness for a good few years now, if you haven’t encountered them yet then you really should set aside a moment to check them out, here they, the delight is ours… (sw)

.

The band’s website is here, they play a London launch gig tomorrow, Thursday December 8th at the Rich Mix

Here’s a video from a couple of years ago just for added flavour…