Fragments of Folk and Blues rundown the bumpy spine of Ampersand’s debut;  the record’s groove, glam and whispers mostly stem from a beaten up acoustic – continuously picked and played – everything here, it seems, starts organically. The synths, laptops, drum machines warp and wander with the initial seeds of thought – building rhythms, growing with numerous channels – leftfield electronics to Pop standard padding. Yet never does it stray from its up close production – a DIY charm and a consistently infectious grasp on melody.

I_Am-Ampersand is Matt Hainsby – the ‘&’ in Fujiya & Miyagi (so now you get the moniker). These songs span from pre-F&J onwards –  Hired Hands vaguely connects the two – from its inward reflection to motorik take-off. Other than that this is all Hainsby and his electronic/acoustic hybrid musings – falling between the off-centre and strangely melancholic.

From the start the record feels intimate, the songs feel like stolen moments – when time presented itself Hainsby retreated to record, to build and to quietly hand us a record that we can’t stop spinning.

-William Bell-