Invisible Ensemble – Danse Macabre
Seemingly every kid who just narrowly missed on the wave of original U.K. punk music worshipped at the altars of Davie Bowie and Iggy Pop. From Gary Numan to Joy Division, the traces of Berlin-era Bowie & Iggy lingered on almost everything noteworthy made on the little island. It’s somehow refreshing to hear that years later, many miles away, the same values continue to inspire modern music.
Danse Macabre, the work of Australia’s Invisible Ensemble, sounds like the kind of tune that could have been tested out in the U.K. laboratories that first unleashed goth-rock or post-punk on a European crowd unconvinced by the merits of disco.
The music is tense and campy. The singing seems torn out of a theatre presentation, with the vocalist fully invested in their mission. The highlight of the four-minute song is the simple chorus. It’s inspired. It sounds as if it was always written and meant to have been given to an entirely different sort of band back in goth’s golden years. Not playing merely for those seeking a taste of nostalgia, Invisible Ensemble creates something that can stand right beside the groups that have inspired them.
The Spins – Shotgun
D’you know, they say that the lads you really want to avoid in a fistfight are the quiet, scrawny ones. They’re supposed to be harbouring the kind of hatred that translates into a pummelling if you cross them.
The Spins’ psychotic single Shotgun sounds like it could soundtrack such a bar fight. “I can feel his face underneath my fist/I’m a swinging, singing nihilist” the singer of the group chimes in charmingly, creating quite an entrance for himself before the song’s truly even begun.
I may come to regret writing this review if the threats sung so joyously on Shotgun turn out to be true. Much like the protagonist of the tune, the Spins are totally divorced from the weight of the subject matter they are tackling. The music and melodies are down-right cheerful and tempting, while the words stand in stark, violent contrast. It’s a Hey Joe for the age of designer medication.
There was simply no way that we wouldn’t feature this on the website.