Labels: File 13
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Have you played the pokemon game on the gameboy yet? It’s great fun. You can download it and an emulator and play it for free even (tut, tut, highly illegal, and other such disclaimers). None of the characters ever die, they just faint. How cute. I’ve only just started playing, and my turtle character is level 7. Think I’ll put in some more time this soon! What a rock’n’roll lifestyle I lead.
Lets get on with it. Having an ex-member of the Front Drive feature, was I ever never going to buy this record? I think not. Still, this here album doesn’t feature many mumbles from Eric, but hey. That just makes the times when he does go “mbmbmbbb mbbmmbbby mmmmy” even more special. Lots of electronica and keyboard are put to effect, thus getting the band nailed with a lot of 80’s comparisons which I am not going to make, because I don’t know which bands. New Order? Huh? The Guitars are generally a little spacey fx-ed up , never competing with one another, rather melding together to create an enveloping sound. I am particularly fond of the sparkly sound they have occasionally. Like someone using icicles as an instrument. Things have definitely moved on a little from that EP they put out last year. Although the songs are still really really long, re: this is a double CD album, and lasts as long as it says it does in the title. I love long songs, long songs are just as cool as 8 second bursts of power violence.
All in all, this a very stark album, as befits the bands name. Using a lot of electronics will do that to you, make things seem a lot more exact and less, uh, human? How about: “7759-60784-1-E” for the name of a track. Plus they use an effect that sounds kinda like polar winds (heh, sort of), and some goddamn sonar noises! Submarines are easily as cool as spies. Antarctica use some great wintery song titles too, like “Ultra NØrsk” and “arctikal”. And I haven’t even mentioned the ohsocool fact that the 2nd CD starts at track #7 on the display. The only way you can tell it is CD2 is the two small silver dots that distinguish it from the singulary circled CD1.
Actually, I’m really surprised at how much I like this. I can see this easily becoming a regular listen in the car, keeping me ticking over during frustrating drives to work, stuck in the shitty traffic. Yup, the soundtrack to the cold mornings and dark evenings of November, it’s not gonna be so bad after all.