Rob Reed and Steve Balsamo have described M.I.A. Vol 1 – their third album as Chimpan A and the first since 2020’s The Empathy Machine – as a response to the “TikTokification” of music. The clue is in its full title: Music Is Art.
This is an old-fashioned, listen-in-one-sitting record. It’s a common goal in the prog world, but to pull off that trick, artists need to create material engaging enough to keep the listener rapt; and the pair have done more than talk a good game here.
They’ve also achieved something different. Considering Chimpan A is the partnership of two artists who straddle the world of prog and pop (Reed with Magenta, Cyan and his Mike Oldfield-inspired Sanctuary series of solo releases; Balsamo with Alan Parsons Project’s Eric Woolfson and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord), they’ve made a record filled with music bearing relatively little similarity with most other acts covered in these pages, while also imbuing it with a character very much of its own.
There’s a powerfully soulful feel to the songs here. That’s partly the result of the presence of vocalists Christina Booth (a longtime Reed collaborator) and Kirstie Roberts, whose stirring gospel-informed tones on numbers such as Karl’s Song produce echoes of Massive Attack’s early work.
What really sets Chimpan A apart, though, is their use of spoken-word passages by playwright Richard Mylan on several tracks. Reed and Balsamo penned music for Mylan’s theatre production Sorter. It punctuates songs such as Wolves and I Will Always Wait For You, while heightening the emotional tension to the point where they can extend the latter track to 10 minutes without it seeming self-indulgent.
That sense of approaching things from a different angle holds true for the cover versions they released in the run-up to the album, which are included the bonus disc that comes with some formats.
Familiarity with the source material mean it’s a bold move to change a key chord in The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe to give it a more uneasy feel – but it’s an intriguing take nonetheless. Their reinvention of Carole King’s Smackwater Jack as a slower, smokier affair offers another left-field take that will be an acquired taste for some.
The bonus disc also features several remixes, the highlight of which is a reworking of Chimpan A’s own 2006 track The Secret Wish, bookended by a sample of perennial Reed touchstone Tubular Bells – showing once again the strength in depth of their own creativity.
Music? Art? Call it what you will, but M.I.A. Vol.1 is an ambitious and unorthodox triumph.
M.I.A. Vol.1 is on sale now via Tigermoth.
