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It's auspicious that Sonic Boom-the solo project and nom-deproducer of Peter Kember (Spectrum, Spacemen 3)-returns in 2020 with it's first new LP in three decades. Kember's drawn to the year's numerological potency, and this intentionality shines into every corner of All Things Being Equal. It's a meditative, mathematical record concerned with the interconnectedness of memory, space, consumerism, consciousness-everything. Through regenerative stories told backwards and forwards, Kember explores dichotomies zen and fearsome, reverential of his analog toolkit and protective of the plants and trees that support our lives. Sonic Boom's second album and first for Carpark began in 2015 as electronic jams. The original sketches of electronic patterns, sequenced out of modular synths, were so appealing that Stereolab's Tim Gane encouraged Kember to them instrumentally. InchI nearly did,Inch confesses Kember, Inchbut the vibe in them was so strong that I couldn't resist trying to ice the cake.Inch Three years later, a move to Portugal saw him dusting off the backing tracks, adding vocals inspired by Sam Cooke, The Sandpipers, and the Everly Brothers (which he admits Inchdon't go far from the turntable pileInch), as well as speculative, ominous spoken word segments. His new home Sintra's parks and gardens provided a different visual context for Kember's thoughtful observations, and he thematically incorporated sunshine and nature as well as global protests into the ten resulting tracks. InchMusic made in sterility sounds sterile,Inch he says, InchAnd that is my idea of hell.Inch Over the vivid, calculating arps of opener InchJust Imagine,Inch Kember nudges listeners to do as the title suggests. It's based on a story he read about a boy who healed his cancer by picturing himself as a storm cloud, raining out his illness. InchThe Way That You Live,Inch a rollicking drone powere
