Right in time for Valentines I caught this new album by this dark synth act from Richmond VA. It takes the darkness of Joy Division and couples it with New Order's more dance oriented side. It is certainly cold and murky enough to suit the new wave of hipsters getting into goth, but jaded old purveyors of the scene should be able to appreciate the mood as well.
" I ( Never) Wanted to Believe" , finds the color spectrum of their sound expanding. It doesn't stray far from the depressive side of the dance floor. This is fine by me. The vocals stay pretty close to the Ian Curtis monotone baritone.
"City Streets" finds things taking on a nastier edm that borders on club goth. This is an even darker turn for the band. The title track develops a more creeping vocal that stalks the more Daft Punk like synths that sound to have landed from the land of Blade Runner. The vocals remain plaintive in their dismal croon. The sense of dynamics circles some where around a surreal pulse. They veer close towards some of the synthier industrial moments even a slight Romeo Void element under coating a song like " Gentle Forces". It's impressive things continue to grow increasingly dark through out this album.
The oppressive electro cloud lifts on "Tell Me How". The vocals bury themselves in the mix, you can tell their in a voice chanting something, but it steers the song out of becoming synth pop. Things take a more dystopian turn when the album closes with " Everything Went Black". IN some ways this has a ballad feel to it ,as the song sways at a much slower bpm than most of the album until it begins to build before the two minute mark. I'm feeling generous so I'll round this up to a 9 out of 10, we shall see if this grows on me. The vocal can lean towards monotonous, and limit the dynamics slightly , but for the mood it's pretty perfect.
6
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