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Glow And Fade is the fifth album from Aussie legend Steve Kilbey of The Church and Martin Kennedy, leader of Down Under, downtempo electronicists All India Radio (AIR), and creator of music for everything from CSI: Miami to Emmerdale. After a decade of collaborating, the union clearly still matters to the pair. Kilbey has poured his heart out in these songs about life’s struggles and the capriciousness and vicissitudes of (human) nature. As for Kennedy, this is the ultimate expression of his childhood love of Pink Floyd dovetailing with the atmospheric dream rock of AIR. They Know is lush acoustica, We Are Still Waiting is radiant mid-tempo rhythmic rock. The title track locates the common ground between ambient techno and shoegaze, with a somnolent drift that recalls The Beatles’ Across The Universe and the Floyd’s Us And Them. The Game Never Changes is a 16-minute neo-prog epic that unfolds with all the beauty of time-lapse photography and evokes the cosmic and fantastical, with meteorological shifts from stormy to spacey. The album closes with the slow-motion panorama of One Is All, a play on All Is One from KK’s first album, bringing their association full circle.

Paul Lester is the editor of Record Collector. He began freelancing for Melody Maker in the late 80s, and was later made Features Editor. He was a member of the team that launched Uncut Magazine, where he became Deputy Editor. In 2006 he went freelance again and has written for The Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph, Classic Rock, Q and the Jewish Chronicle. He has also written books on Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Bjork, The Verve, Gang Of Four, Wire, Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, the Spice Girls, and Pink.

Kilbey Kennedy - Glow And Fade album review

Latest team-up between Church man and soundtrack maven