The final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was held last night. I didn’t watch it. As far as I am concerned, there hasn’t been a worthy entry for decades – perhaps not since 1967 when Sandie Shaw won for the UK with Puppet on a String. In general, the performers are mediocre, the music is rubbish, and the outfits are ridiculous. So I have learned to filter out anything Eurovision.

But you have to be careful with filters. They can sift out the good as well as the bad. Social media algorithms are particularly dangerous. They can lead to toxic bias and “filter bubbles” that generate conflict and violence.

That is the theme that GRICE has taken for his most recent album. Four tracks from Filter are available for streaming now on bandcamp; the full album will be released on 29th May.

Sample tracks from the forthcoming album

In earlier reviews (Polarchoral, Mordant Lake) I have praised GRICE for his sonic textures and exceptional production skills. The preview list, though, offers the simpler, poppier songs, which don’t show off those aspects of his work to the full. It is heard best on the more experimental tracks, especially the instrumentals Look to the Spring and Desert Bloom. There you will hear fretless and double bass, violin, cello, duduk and trumpet alongside the guitars, synthesisers and electronics that are the stock-in-trade of GRICE, the multi-instrumentalist.

At heart, GRICE is a songwriter in the old-fashioned sense, but he explores a little of the avant-garde, too. It should be no surprise, then, that he has collaborated once again with Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen, the driving force behind Japan. David Torn and Theo Travis also make contributions this time around. Together, they have created an album that could almost be something from Japan‘s repertoire. Often haunting, even a little disturbing at times, but always enjoyable.

Take my advice: adjust the parameters of your listening filters to let GRICEful music pass through, and tune out the Eurovision trash.