Released: 14/04/23
The cross-genre composer/producer Anna Meredith’s new project, Nuc, a strings ’n’ electronics collaboration with Ligeti Quartet, is a huge, life-affirming shot in the arm, and the perfect album to usher in the spring. As evidenced by tracks such as the blitzkrieg hyper-pop of opener ‘Tuggemo’ – all Xenakis-esque glissandi with rave chords (reminding me a little of the bonkers Aphex Twin remix of Philip Glass’s Heroes), and the elegiac, drop-dead gorgeous ‘Blackfriars’, Nuc is an album that ignores the idea that cutting-edge classical experimentation cannot also be joyously expressive and emotional. There is positivity and playfulness everywhere on Nuc, and the awesome ‘A Short Tribute to Teenage Fanclub’, with which Meredith pays homage to one her favourite bands (not that it sounds anything like the Glaswegian four-piece), is yet more proof of her impeccable taste and striking lack of pretension.