Alabaster dePlume
GOLD
International Anthem
Buy via Bandcamp | Listen Below

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but first impressions can sometimes prove to be right—in this case the strangely monikered Alabaster dePlume, otherwise known as Angus Fairbairn, has produced an album that is as strikingly unconventional as his stage name. New album GOLD is his second on Chicago independent label International Anthem and follows the tranquility of To Cy and Lee from 2020 with a set of songs that are by turns delicate, slightly unsettling and plenty of things in between.

Mixing saxophone playing with spoken word, the album is split almost 50/50 between instrumental pieces and those that feature dePlume’s unusually phrased vocal performances. The themes of the album are also split fairly equally between examining his own humanity with its frailties and foibles and those of authority figures in the UK and beyond. Its recording is the result of a two-week session at London’s Total Refreshment Centre and the whittling down of 17 hours’ worth of recordings to the 68 minutes on offer here.

The first track “A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa)” is a good indication of what the album has to offer—a portion of eastern devotional music, dePlume’s tremulous saxophone phrases and choral vocals all gradually build from something relaxed and delicately beautiful to something with greater urgency before subsiding once again. This is the template for large parts of the album.

This is followed by one of the standout tracks of the album in “Don’t Forget You’re Precious.” Atop a similar sounding track as the opener, dePlume reels off a list of things that he is able to recall easily, whilst simultaneously forgetting the innate importance of his humanity: “Don’t do it / Don’t forget you’re precious / I remember my identity / I remember my shame / I remember the German word for calculator / But I forget that I’m precious / Taschenrechner.”

What might be a twee aspirational life quote becomes something much more when he ties this inherent belief in his own value to the wider world: “They can’t beat us / They can’t beat us if we don’t forget / They can’t use us on one another / If we don’t forget we’re precious.” By doing so, he forges a sense of shared possibility to change the world that feels more important than ever.

The thread of common humanity runs throughout the album. On “Do You Know A Human Being When You See One?” he wrestles with his own prejudices: “I’ve done it / I’ve looked at someone / And said / Not with my voice / Not with my heart / But somewhere dark / In the back of my head / I’ve looked at someone and said / You don’t count . . . But it’s not my voice / And I’m not a monster yet.”

Later on, the same issues arise on “People: What’s The Difference?” But this time around, he tackles the wretched inhumanity of the UK government’s attitude to refugees and immigrants. He questions the lines we draw between ourselves and others in fairly innocuous ways until the song climaxes with the repetition of “people in the sea” to an increasingly stormy musical accompaniment.

Amidst the pleas for compassion, there are some beautiful pieces of music. “The Sound Of My Feet On This Earth Is A Song to Your Spirit” is exactly as you might imagine given its title and “I’m Gonna Say Seven” is a grandiose flight of musical fancy. Meanwhile the same street-fighting, shit-kicking attitude to jazz that Sons Of Kemet exhibit so finely is presented on the pogoing insistence of “Fucking Let Them,” while “I Will Not Be Safe” is an open-hearted pure manifesto for life.

Perhaps inevitably, given the way in which the album was created, there are things that don’t seem fully rounded or developed out. But this quibble aside, GOLD presents a refreshing voice that intrigues on every level.

Notable Tracks: “A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa)” | “Don’t Forget You’re Precious” | “I’m Good At Not Crying” | “I Will Not Be Safe”

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