Another Fine Day – Salvage

Another Fine Day follows up his classic LIFE BEFORE LAND with SALVAGE, which starts with a bucolic, gurgling version of "Scarborough Fair," the melody provided by a wavering fiddle, whereas "Twisted Standards" brings in a jazzy blues feel to its bouncy piano-and-kalimba concoction. The kalimbas reappear in "Cutting Branches," which leans on its African-inspired breaks to stand in contrast to the floating, beatless "Lost In Space." "Urban Fox" has a dusty Western feel, despite the kalimba and didgeridoo, while "In 5" ventures deeper into the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps the track "Irish in China" sums up the album's aesthetic best: it's a melding of various musical cultures, and the results are quite lovely to listen to. "Malcolm's Loop" takes the album out on a gentle guitar plucking, accompanied by some piano. While it doesn't quite hit the blissful heights as LIFE BEFORE LAND, it does salvage Another Fine Day's reputation.

sale-o-boy has a point- Life Before Land is a better album- but Salvage isn't quite so so bad as that ! An interesting attempt to bring acoustic instruments into an electronic genre, it offers a good deal more imagination and experimentation than the usual run of tedious ambient electronica, (that's basically just a boring beat and a boring pad)... some of this album works really well, it's main faults being inconsistency and a lack of overall direction- still, the name says it all- this isn't supposed to be a main statement of intent- it's an album of one-off experimental tracks pursuing their own logic, more "Pet Sounds" than a singles collection...and well worth having a listen to, if you're bored of the usual (aren't you ? I know I am...)

Very boring a hippy release compared to their BEYOND album. The violin and (mouth)accordion gives me the creeps ... Food for new age lovers, mermaids or menopaused humans. A very mellow (overacted) album suitable for lousy Walt Disney movies only.