Chilly Gonzales
‘Ivory Tower’
(Schmooze / Gentle Threat)

Rapper, raconteur, renaissance man… As if Chilly Gonzales’ CV wasn’t already over-endowed, he’s now gracing the film world in a chess-fixated love triangle and hauling textbook techno tykes du jour Boys Noize into his orbit on this here soundtrack. A mighty complementary job they do too, steering him into lusciously layered dancefloor dramas such as the melancholy, monumental ‘KnightMoves’, the uncoilingly squiggly ‘NeverStop’ and the if-house-happened-inthe70s ‘RoccocoChannell’ while letting his nimble fingers weave worlds of magic on the likes of virtuoso pianothons ‘Bittersuite’ and ‘PixelPaxel’ and bowing before his insightful, imaginative non sequiturs on the glorious ‘IAmEurope’. A singlehanded Sparks is probably the closest comparison; otherwise, he’s operating at a total remove from the rest of music generally, and, as moves go, it’s an admirably shrewd one.

Iain Moffat