Gates of Heaven
"Sea Hell" CD
Culture Heart
Genre: glitch-folk, experimental
NYC, USA
Sep 19 2008 |
Sea Hell likes to tease. The stark beeps and boops introducing
us to opener "Thin Air" gradually build and crescendo into a layered,
throbbing anthem, hinting at a relatively majestic album to come. The
song that follows is the boring and annoying "Blackout Babies",
dissonant Casio-pop that deliberately avoids all the minimalist
cuteness that makes Casio endearing. The album continues to flip-flop
between arresting and disgusting for the next seven tracks. It
certainly has potential.
The album's unrefined in the way that is
not super-popular these days. That is to say it owes more to
Akron/Family's howling spirituality than HEALTH's cynical
electro-pop. This is good, because it makes
for a unique sound, but also problematic, as Gates of Heaven
tread untrodden turf on this album and take a few missteps. Stuttering
eight-minute plodder "Brain Cloud" is particularly unlistenable.
It's when the Gates are most confident in their delivery
that they write the nicest songs. "Mande Burung" is the album's finest
moment, a triumphant ode which proudly asserts that "Mande Burung will
come out tonight" if we are virtuous, or something. Album closer
"Beard of Fire" treads even more familiar turf, letting the Death
By Audio synths finally get overshadowed by the piano and guitar
(what're those again?). Even more
shockingly, it features singing that doesn't
sound like it comes out of a plugged-nose vocoder. As a result "Beard
of Fire" sounds good, but generic, and consequently makes it seem like
you've heard something special on the rest of Sea Hell. Despite
all the overstylized fuzz and lazy recording, there is a lot to
appreciate on Sea Hell. Gates of Heaven could put out a great
album, and they could also disappear like so many Brooklyn kids
fucking around on synthesizers. We'll wait and see.
gates of
heaven's myspace
81%
youuuuuuuutube!:
"blackout babies" video
Andrew
Kai-Yin MacKenzie
[Vitals: 10 tracks, distributed by
the
label,
released April 2008] |