Dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip // Repent, Replenish, Repeat

Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Repent, Replenish, Repeat (Sunday Best Recordings)

Angles was Pip and Dan’s honeymoon. After Thou Shalt Always Kill’s impassioned one-night stand, the pair committed to one another and released their debut album to much acclaim. Months passed happily and The Logic of Chance marked their two year anniversary; notable, but ultimately inconsequential. However niggling creative differences and a desire to work in their own space led to an amicable split, but a split nonetheless. Pip and Dan both released modest solo albums, and although singe life proved liberating for a while, each gradually longed for the company of the other. Realising they worked better together after all, five years after they first joined together, Pip and Dan have written Repent, Replenish, Repeat, but that title alone already suggests a return to echoing conceits. Just like many a relationship that’s patched up and put back together, no amount of present happiness can prevent comparisons with the past. And that’s the problem with Repent, Replenish, Repeat; whilst Angles was new and exciting, this latest effort, although more mature in every sense, struggles to feel as incendiary. Efforts to spice things up with the addition of Flux Pavilion works especially well on the swashbuckling ménage a trois of Gold Teeth, but others, like the glitchy Entity, simply aren’t as good as Pip’s moving spoken word on the elegiac Terminal, or the boisterous break up of Stunner. It’s a shame, but as Pip usefully surmises on the aforementioned Stunner; “I ain’t sayin’ you’re perfect, but you’re really, really good/Ain’t saying I love you but I probably could have.” And yes, with a slightly different approach, love might not have proved too hard to find, but unfortunately Repent, Replenish, Repeat leaves you chasing one too many ‘what could have beens. 6/10 Alex Throssell