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If you think Belle and Sebastian are missing a dimension, try this. Swollen, plucked acoustic pop, burnt with electronic tinges. Twee, but never cloying. Soft voices exhale gently, so fragile that I'm worried they'll fall apart. Clouds float by. Brittle guitar harmonies are warm and sweet, like a bowl of ice cream melting in the sun. With modest effort, Komëit cajole senses into quick submission. Chris Flor and Julia Kliemann's vocal delivery radiates enormous peace. In their minds, they walk across desolate wastelands so you don't have to, revealing their own private fears and insecurities in the process. Therapy through mass exposure. Interesting concept. Komëit have the answers. The questions are up to you, but they're probably superfluous. This is an irresistibly pure outpouring of semi-grief, like finding a lost love and losing her again. Play 'It's A Good Thing You Called' in a spacious white room, preferably one with a big window where you can brood, light endless cigarettes, inhale deeply and watch the rain fall. It'll help. Not since Tears For Fears' 'The Hurting' has isolation been so symbolic. Sinking into melancholy never felt so good. "We're restless, we're tired, we're lonely and sad..." Calm, delicate, contemplative, naive, intense â?? like a generously-honeyed amalgam of Lali Puna, Mazzy Star and Kings Of Convenience, Komëit's warm atmospheres cite minimal stories, pivoting around discreet electronics and sporadically-plucked acoustic guitar in a gloriously hypnotic idyll of digital cut and paste. Cuts deep, but it's worth it.

Velimir Pavle Ilic
CWAS #11 - Autumn 2002

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