Judging by the sleeve notes, the latest release from Alex Keevill‘s The Microdance has clearly had a difficult gestation, but the end result seems to have been well worth the sweat and tears. Over the course of fourteen tracks and more than an hour, we are taken on an emotional journey that hints at a kind of alt-rock direction, though Our Love Noire does rather plough its own furrow, with one of the unique points being Alex’s vocals that veer from a scream to a disembodied whisper while riding a dense rollercoaster of sound.
On opener “Lovesick Kisses”, the vocals are a soporific, whispered sneer that sit in the middle of a morass of sound. An athletic guitar almost sings as a counterpoint to the voice, which battles with bass, drums and assorted other textures, all vying for space. There are epic peaks and troughs, and then a most unexpected breakdown. There is some charm to the production, because where this could become overwhelming and bombastic, it chooses not to be, somehow hovering, adjusting the dials and caressing the listener.
There are female vocals at play as well and they work really well, injecting some light into the proceedings, buoying up Alex’s shattered delivery on “Get Darker”. There are also some guitar pyrotechnics on the album; but again, it doesn’t sound like unnecessary fretplay and almost more of a frame through which to experience the vocals. The band clearly loves to rock, but insists on shifting the shape of each track. The empty church breakdown on “Get Darker” sets it far apart from the milky Eastern guitar and fairground squeals of “Gloom2“, with its background of sighs and groans. The intensity eases on “Premonitions Of Love” and the female vocals feel like a salve for Alex’s soul, and the bare bones acoustica of “Felicity Attacks” sees the stars coming out one by one as the vocals drift like aether through the twilight. I was trying to think of influences, but apart from a Cure-like vibe to the bass on “Stupenzzza” and a certain solemnity to “Sad Heroes In Hell”, which is tip of the hat to them, really Our Love Noire moves on its own. It is the variety of vocal effects that impressed me though. The production of “The Ride Today” feels as though it was recorded in a tube station, with the vocals coming from the darkness beyond the tracks; while ‘Hippo Highway” never really breaks from the shadows either until the female vocals arrive and the guitar evokes the dawning of a new day after a hard, dark night.The trick with the guitars, as with the voices, is for them to don a slightly different disguise for each track and on “Beelzebubbles”, there is even that Godspeed sound of frets attacked with screwdriver. Here Alex is too heartbroken to even raise his voice above a last body’s breath, until a bloodcurdling scream that takes us by surprise. It sounds like it has been dragged from hell and is matched by the fiery guitar scree. Where normally the rhythm section is just a framework for the song to shine, the drums do step out on the short instrumental “Messalina’s Missive”, so by the time the spectral tale of “Trick Parade” leaves us with the most extravagant but incredibly short guitar solo, you really do have to draw breath.
Our Love Noire is an emotional and vibrant series of tracks that dart from full view, doing their best to evade pigeonholing and preventing the listener from second-guessing them. You could say it was an alt-rock album, maybe; but certainly not as we know it.-Mr Olivetti-
