I
love Mushy Records. They’re the most clueless bunch this scene has encountered,
releasing consistently below-par music with dreadful cover art and perplexingly
pretentious titles.
I
am in love with this Shanti-Kitsch. I adore it. I even collect their releases;
while you lot hang onto your Blue Room 12”s, it’s the resale value of my Mushy
CDs that’s going to keep me in stout and heroin thirty years down the line.
As
Mushy goes, Angels Calling isn’t that bad. There are nice moments, some
interesting twists, and some good production that’s only marginally ruined by
Mushy’s trademark charity shop mastering.
The
problem is that musically, Twilight lacks originality. There’s too much
retreading and too much familiarity here, which is unfortunate as there is
doubtlessly good musical talent in there somewhere.
I
can understand that the process of making music – something which I have never
experimented with, for fear of being reviewed by myself – involves learning the
ropes by pulling in the influences with which one is most comfortable. Fair
enough. I also understand that one must shed these influences in order to find
one’s own voice. Again, fair enough.
If
this is really how it works, then the act of releasing an LP really ought to be
at the end of the second phase – not at the end of the first. If everyone did
this, every band would sound like the Pixies. Which I suppose is half true.
Whatever,
Angels Calling is a decent enough album that’s let down by this play-it-safe
familiarity, coupled with bad mastering. I can see it working well on a
dancefloor, but for home listening when one requires a little substance with
one’s kick, it falls far short.
(0 vote)
