From kazoo & harpsichord to large electronically-augmented ensemble: Alex Paxton's Delicious on New Amsterdam Records is a multi-layered maximalist delight:

Alex Paxton: Delicious - Scrunchy Touch Sweetly to Fall (kite and finger run), Shrimp BIT Baby Face, Dadd's Fairies, Justgum Friends, Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à lorange), Levels of Affection; Dreammusics Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC), GBSR DUO, Explore Ensemble; New Amsterdam Records
Reviewed 11 June 2026

The latest sonic adventure from Alex Paxton features studio versions of pieces written for live ensembles over the years. It is as vivid and unexpected as we might imagine, a multi-layered maximalist delight.

Any Alex Paxton disc is guaranteed to be a wild ride and his new disc, Delicious on New Amsterdam Records is no different. A hyperactive sonic adventure, Delicious features Scrunchy Touch Sweetly to Fall (kite and finger run), Shrimp BIT Baby Face, Dadd's Fairies, Justgum Friends and Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à lorange), Levels of Affection - as usual with Paxton, the works' titles are half the fun - performed by Dreammusics Ensemble (Paxton's own ensemble), Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC), GBSR DUO, Explore Ensemble.

The music is all a maximalist delight, there is always a lot happening and textures are sonically complex, rich in detail and multi-layered in feel. Paxton explains, 'I start composing by following a feeling. Melody is the core of my musical language and the first thing I write. For me, tunes are the most tentacular of music languages able to reach all kinds of alcoves, juices and specialities of our existing. The harmony of a piece is always looking for the maximum pleasure and everything left to do I call "orchestrating". Here I am constantly imagining to experience the music through the whole body, from large gradations you can feel in your navel to tiny nuances of sensual experience like rain on the back of your ears, or a funny smell.'

We begin with Scrunchy Touch Sweetly to Fall (kite and finger run) which has three movements, Touching Sweetly, Scrunchy Munchy and Kite though all three have a commonality which makes the entire piece flow as one. Things begin high and bright, almost as if the speed has been turned up, but Paxton develops this alarming texture from the top down, and the three movements seems to have an unstoppable, vibrant force to them. Underlying everything is that sense of melody that Paxton talks about above, giving the piece a feeling of demented film music.

Shrimp BIT Baby Face is a large, nearly 20 minute single movement for large electronically-augmented ensemble and here Paxton's writing is really multi-layered with different sonic textures moving a different speeds. This begins with dense, opaque textures then what follows is a series of episodes, restless and vivid. This is world-building that takes Charles Ives' use of polytonality and polyrhythm to the max with the feeling of being in a chaotic world, including snatches of conversation. Whilst Paxton guides the music securely, he does so in a way that ensure that we never quite know where we are. This is a confusing world, and a journey of discovery at the same time, allied to that sonic magic that Paxton brings as you wonder quite what is making those sounds.

Dadd's Fairies begins almost as a folk piece for strings. If the earlier work used electronics, then this one is more clearly acoustic with a melody threading its way through but Paxton's playfulness is always to the fore and you certainly would have trouble dancing to this particular jig or reel.

The booklet notes thankfully inform us that the opening of Justgum Friends is for kazoo and harpsichord, only Paxton could put those together and create something so remarkable, then you at a choir of demented voices, percussion and more and the result is appealing chaos. As the notes say, 'music as joy, humour, and general surreality are present in every layer".

Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à lorange) is a six-movement piece, and again the titles are a delight, Yeasty Pets & Best Drums, Mouldy Moany Snog Drip, Three Horned Tooth Garden Beast Piercing, Along the Long Orange Light, Flowery Preserve String Mulch Dress Dump and Is that all you've got to say to Grandma then is it?

We begin with a rather perky, retro-feeling groove to which Paxton adds mischievous layers. The second movement feels more like a sonic installation, a sense of something happened just off screen with noises that almost feel like a motorbike revving and voices singing along. The third movement has a moto perpetuo underlying it that tricks you into thinking Paxton has gone minimalist; not a bit, it's just that around this he hangs all sorts of virtuosity and vividness, all arising from his alarming imagination. Things speed up in the next movement, and the moto perpetuo turns into one of those synth textures from the 1970s, except here given the Paxton maximal treatment with added instruments and sing-along voices, and there is no let up until the end. The final piece begins with screaming voices, clearly grandma has that effect on some people, and the combination of disturbing sing-along and strange sound world is remarkable.

We finish with Levels of Affection where we are back with a catchy groove over which Paxton spreads his magic.

This is most definitely not a disc to put on and relax as it plays in the background. Paxton's restless Muse constantly demands attention as you wonder over sonic magic or sheer bad-ass textures. And what we have to remember is that underneath all this contemporary virtuosic dazzle are real performers, humans who actually make these sounds and we are more than impressed.

Alex Paxton (born 1994) - Scrunchy Touch Sweetly to Fall (kite and finger run)
Alex Paxton - Shrimp BIT Baby Face
Alex Paxton - Dadd's Fairies
Alex Paxton - Justgum Friends
Alex Paxton - Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à lorange)
Alex Paxton - Levels of Affection
Dreammusics Ensemble
Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC)
GBSR DUO
Explore Ensemble
New Amsterdam Records 1CD
Available from BandCamp.

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