Houses of Heaven : 'Within/Without"

 This album came out back in April, so just getting around to checking it out. It's the kind of dark wave / future pop hybrid you can expect to hear out at the club. The breakdown things a little more to a more spacious groove for the trembling beat to patter under. The formula seems intact in the chorus. They have successfully captured the sound they are going for, now the test is are they able to twist this sound into more varied expressions of who they are musically. Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb lends his voice to 'The End of Me " which has an almost Duran Duran-like new wave groove. 

The percussive elements are marginally more aggressive for "New Decay". But four songs it and there is the feeling that things need to switch up a little more. To some extent, they do so by draping "Depths You Hold" in more atmosphere, which gives the vocals more room for their breathy emoting. This works for me as it is darker and less of a typical "goth nite" dance floor pounder, which all begin to sound the same after a while. 'Flesh Techniques" is one of those smoke-filled late-night grooves, that works for what it is, but finds them heading back in a more uniform direction.  

Ms. Boan adds her voice to send "Deserve" in a more Boy Harsher-like direction. The means haunting the murky alleyways of the 80s. Her voice at least gives things a different sonic color; "Pieces" has a little poppier beat but it does not really help it from beginning to blur together with the other songs as I have to go back and see if I had already heard it or not. So not the most memorable song on the album. Considering the title you might expect "Serpent Coil" to have a little more of a slither. It reminds me of Underworld in the way the vocal melody is phrased, The last song has an almost more organic post-punk tension. They are great at what they do and I appreciate the mood created here, not sure if the songs are the most memorable, but if you want some late-night clove smoking grooves this album has them, I will give it an 8.5. 

pst321