Equally impressive are the credits to Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa’s name she’s contributed percussion to albums by Kurt Vile, Cate le Bon, Courtney Barnett, Sharon Van Etten, and Kim Gordon, among others. With a back catalogue at Lex Records that spans half a dozen studio LPs as Boom Bip, plus another two as one half of electronic pop duo Neon Neon, Bryan Hollon has already made a name for himself as a Mercury prize-nominated producer and multi-instrumentalist. The album closes with the Joy Division-hinting "Black Spring", another epic piece of electronic music from this essential DFA release." To further strengthen the soundtrack theme, the duo are at work on a short film to go with the epic, expansive third track, "Relevee". "Black Spring" pulses and builds like a climax to a long-lost horror flick (think zombies or envision a post-apocalyptic world). Touching upon their love of everything from Alice Coltrane to acid house, Santeria ritual music to the kosmiche side of krautrock, opener "Rise" draws on these touchstones while remaining true to Delia and Gavin's mesmerizing sound repetitious sinewaves ripple and undulate to achieve a heightened state of awareness. 'Since everything we do is theatrical, our music becomes like a soundtrack' Delia explains, and how right she is! The world glimpsed on "Days Of Mars" is an incredibly vivid one, made by layering live takes of keyboards and other instruments, many designed and built specifically for making this LP. "DFA release their fourth artist album for 2005, following on from LCD Soundsystem, The Juan MacLean and Black Dice. Like the best movie, ‘Cigarettes After Sex’ holds you in a hell of a spell. The exception is ‘Each Time You Fall In Love’, which was recorded in the Beekman’s stairway after hours, the ghosts of screen overhandled in every warm note. Taking influence from The Cowboy Junkies’ ‘The Trinity Session’ (recorded in a church, single microphone),Cigarettes After Sex recorded most of the album in three days at the Sweatshop rehearsal space, Bushwick. To mirror their woozy romanticism in music, Gonzalez rejected conventional studio routes for his band, which numbers Randy Miller on bass, Jacob Tomsky on drums and Phillip Tubbs on keyboards. And, just as every good filmmaker knows the need for a killer finale, so Gonzalez closes the album with the retro-romantic swing and teasingly filthy put-downs (the “sucking cock” lyric isn’t as barbed as it seems, just friendly joshing) of ‘Young & Dumb’, which brings the album to a close with good, timeless advice: “Drive your car to the beach with the song on repeat…”. ‘Sunsetz’ and the gently lilting ‘Sweet’, meanwhile, showcase Gonzalez’s ability to weave impressionistic snapshots of romance into melodies that haunt like memories of past loves, all coalescing around his melting vocals.Įlsewhere, Gonzalez mounts movies in miniature with the photographic references of ‘Flash’ and ‘Fitzcarraldo’ echoes of ‘Opera House’, a song so lovingly languid it could, conceivably, soundtrack a man hauling ships over mountains for love. On album opener ‘K.’, a tale of blossoming love etched in tiny details luxuriates over chiming guitars on the hymn to romantic compulsion of ‘Each Time You Fall in Love’, the suspended animation of Angelo Badalamenti’s heart-stopping ‘Twin Peaks ‘music is echoed. Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez’s ability to set a scene and sustain a mood reels you in deeply.
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