This is the three-piece Fire!'s eighth album for Rune Grammofon and just in case the usual formula where the trio invites friends over to assist in the production of ever-more dramatic output has become tired, they have turned their back on all that. Instead, they headed for Illinois and spent two days with Steve Albini paring the essence of the sound back to sax, bass and drums and allowing rhythmic sturdiness as a framework for new adventures.
Daily archives: 05/03/2024
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I honestly thought Xmal Deutschland’s lead singer wouldn’t ever return to music, (very much like the much-missed Danielle Dax), but I’m glad to have her back, here collaborating with long-standing friend Mona Mur and involving fellow Xmal bandmate Manuela Rickers to produce something that’s still haunted by that punk / gothic angst of yore, but is so much more considered, oozing with a refreshed sleekness that’s closer to Viva than the '80s glamourgast that was Devils.
Xmal Deutschland were born within the same German post-punk movement of the early '80s that produced such bands as Mania D, Malaria! , Abwarts and of course Einstürzende Neubauten. This was a fever pitch of creativity for young bands pushing boundaries within their musical styles with some, like Xmal, being swallowed up in the early goth scene in the UK along with lots of other bands that they bore no resemblance to musically.
Kayla Cohen's Itasca project has been running now for over ten years and has found a comfortable home of Paradise of Batchelors. This is the third album for them and with Robbie Coady of Wand behind the desk, and with assistance from Evan Backer and Evan Burrows as well as Gun Outfit bandmate Daniel Swire, a more guitar-centric sound has been uncovered and shown to the light.
It does well to initially evoke its era. The film’s primary tones are garish neon and sweat on skin, like a grimy San Junipero, and the set design and cinematography do well to create sense of a place where macho sleaze permeates every nook and cranny of the town. The problem is the characters that inhabit it feel too archetypal, too lacking in the eccentricities and unpredictabilities that would make them believable.