Review Summary: Debut EP from the indie electronic act references Kraftwerk and New Order with a smattering of cheesy pop
It’s hard to tell whether Dark Room Notes take themselves very seriously indeed, or if they’re far more self-aware than they look. The video for their infectious debut single, the stop-start dance number ‘Love Like Nicotine,’ doesn’t help an awful lot: on the one hand, the black and white clip ends with a hilarious synchronised dance routine a la OK Go; on the other, it’s actually an homage to a scene from a classic French art film I’m not cultured enough to have seen. Two of the band’s numbers are former photography majors, hence the name, and sensationally the drummer’s name is ‘Camera’ Shanahan. They’re unquestionably arty and aloof, yet as much as I’d love to brand them pretentious wankers, they pull it off with style and no little attention to detail. The production value on the four songs which make up their debut EP,
Dead Start Program, is impeccable and, hackneyed though the ‘indie electronic’ tag has become, the group do have something of a distinctive sound, mainly due to the unusual (for the genre) vocals of singer/guitarist Ronan Gaughan.
The EP opens with ‘Slow Puncture,’ an ultra-melodic collision of Ash-style pop punk and New Order-style pure pop, which is given a vaguely progressive feel by the constantly shifting underlying melodies and the clever alternating use of male and female support vocals. There’s something gothicly morbid about the lyrics, and they’re just smart enough to avoid being trite, as Gaughan sings,
“saw you on mood street/saw you in the window/loved you like a daydream/killed you in a minute.” The synth hook which underpins the verse of ‘I Walked To The River’ lifts and dives in a manner not dissimilar to ABBA’s ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’; the guitar work is sparse and tasteful in the vein of The Smiths’ Johnny Marr or The Cure’s Porl Thompson, and the breathless, Bowie-tinged vocals gift the track an odd sort of sensuality common to much of AFI’s recent material. ‘Oh How Your Roses Wither Fast’ recalls The Killers at their
Hot Fuss best with an obnoxious rave throwback melody, but the vocals are pure Britpop, falling somewhere between Tim Wheeler and Ian Brown.
The best is saved for last, however; closing track ‘Shake Shake My Ceiling’ hinges upon a no-nonsense Pixies-like bass line with minimal electronic input, before resolving (or unravelling) into a controlled chaos of voices, reminiscent of recent Bloc Party singles. Ironic though it is that the EP’s best track is the least electronic of them all, it does neatly sum up the range and sonic versatility Dark Room Notes can display in a very short space of time. The influences are obvious, but rarely do the group sound like they’re imitating the groups they reference. The only real complaint that can be offered about
Dead Start Program is that at just four tracks, and fifteen minutes, it feels almost like a meal half-finished, begging for more. As a snack, though, it works, and it’s probably veggie-friendly too.
Full EP stream: http://www.myspace.com/darkroomnotesireland
