paco sala: put your hands on me

Paco Sala have come a long way since the dusty beats of their debut, Ro-Me-Ro. The duo of Antony Harrison and the re-christened Birch (formerly Leyli) dissected and reassembled their sound during the two years Put Your Hands on Me was written and recorded. This album, their second, runs deeper and is far more collaborative in all aspects. Put Your Hands on Me is steeped in violence, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt. Scars left from a brutal past play victim to the minor-chord synth swells and complex rhythms. In between whispers, Birch howls with a vengeance. Her voice provides a counterweight to Harrison's gunshot-fed beats and glowing synths. Each hushed tone or whispered lyric is bathed in smoky neon hues, lost in a binge-fuelled haze. Album opener "Impossible Places" melts disparate influences from contemporary R&B to '80s no wave into a cathartic reverie while the cryptic melodies of "Jonny Silverhands" soundtrack a dystopian future. Birch's voice is soft and sultry against the sharp synths and rhythms of "The ACO," acting as a barrier between the perpetrator and a sea of bubbling rage. There's a scattered diversity to Put Your Hands on Me, yet it never loses its cohesive thread. It's a massive album, meticulously assembled and masterfully engineered. Paco Sala aren't fucking around any longer. Mastered by John Tejada and cut to vinyl at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.