28 July 2012

S ND Y P RL RS - rex (Umor Rex, 2012)


It has been a slow process, the transformation fo Songs for Sunday Parlours into Sunday Parlours and next into S ND Y P RL RS, but it's the change of style which has been dramatic, from warm melancholic acoustic songs towards spectral and desperate electric soundscapes tending towards drone and dark ambient, where the vocals are mostly just whispers, for a result I would describe as Flying Saucer Attack sharing his sadness with Zelienople under the quietening effects of sleeping pills, or Roy Montgomery inside a barely lightened cave.


The are no songs per se, at least some passing ghostly versions of it. Honestly, at first, I really thought I would dislike and rapidly reject this album but instead it turned into something disturbingly attractive, even if poisonous.

The instrumental opener, "Deserter" is particularly dark and almost morbid, making you feel like during  a bleak rainy november afternoon. But already there is some light on the vaporous "Twentyfour", with buried shoegaze vocals in the background and a wall of distorted guitars in the forefront, The Flying Saucer Attack is obvious but Malte Cornelius Jantzen adds an appeasing introspective melancholic dimension. 

It's with "The Other Hand Is Good" that he finally achieves expectations, a beautiful haunted slowcore song, buried in reverb with a slow-paced aching distorted electric guitar. 

Next in line, the instrumental "Redeemer" fails to be noticeable, while on "Take" he returns to his dark drone shoegaze explorations. I much more prefer the ghostlike dark introspection of "Take" which is strangely arresting, full of regrets and hope. Then another vague instrumental, "Two Wrongs", closes the record.

Among the seven songs, I'm tempted to keep three ones, "Twenty four", "The Other Hand Is Good" and "Take", which is not a bad conclusion with this radical change of stylistic focus.

http://umor-rex.org/


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