Album Review: Headgear, Omphalos

Headgear is basically Daragh Dukes and his cohorts, and Omphalos is the first album under that name since 2007. For those whose knowledge of Greece stops at feta cheese, Omphalos is basically the navel, or a stone in the Temple of Apollo marking the centre of the world.

Dukes’ music is equally tantalising, an atmospheric blitz of loops, beats, samples and distorted vocals. The ambient tonalities of Sigur Rós meets after-hours jazz, in the first track of three that share the album’s title, while the second offers similar quirkiness.

The sax is back for ‘Someday, Son, This Won’t Be All Yours Either’, with the percussive patter of tiny feet and treated vocals making for an entrancing musical safari. ‘Way Too Much’ has impressive vocals and baby noises to spice up a track full of intrigue, while ‘To Midnight With Love And Questions’ has an apocalyptic beginning and creepy vocals to warn us of doomsday.

Rarely has the end of the world sounded so close or poetic.

8/10