Album Evaluation

Continental Liaison – Analogue Coronary heart  (Continental Liaison)

CD / DL

out now

They gown in purple and black and appear like a punk rock Kraftwerk. They’ve a Digital Thoughts however an Analogue Coronary heart: South Coast electro-punks Continental Liaison launch their debut album. Ged Babey tries to beat his irrational prejudice in opposition to the synthesiser. 

Inventive Optimistic Invincible

Continental Liaison have been round for a while, he says vaguely. They play selective gigs in Bournemouth, Winchester and Southampton however I don’t know the place they really come from. However I do know the place they’re at. The purpose the place it has all been leading- a debut album they’re happy with and sounds absolutely shaped and captures the whole lot they’re about; the artwork, the politics, the ennui and the angst. And naturally the music.

I had forgotten that I reviewed their monitor Purple Mist 5 years again when i concluded that Continental Liaison ‘sound like an digital Billy Infantile jamming with Suicide‘. And since then they’ve had “Like Goldfrapp fronted by Iggy Pop” and a punk rock Kraftwerk comparisons. They’re in all probability nearer being an Digital Gothic Angst outfit.

Their strict purple and black color code at all times jogs my memory of the Spizz tune.

Continental Liaison do look as if they’ve flown straight in from 1982 on a Mute Information chartered Tardis.  However that’s cool. They’ve a agency identification which marks them out from the pack these days.

‘Analogue Coronary heart’ as a self descriptive title is a little bit of a misnomer as Liaison are very digital.  There are guitars however from monitor one the sound is extra Useless Or Alive after the PWL intervention reasonably than earlier than once they had been cool.

Influences/similarities come thick and quick – Depeche Mode with a replicant Numan on vocals…. Chicks On Velocity! (Nice how an all-male band can seize the art-magic of sensible feminist-pranksters). Devo, New Order, The Durutti Column with Sprechgesang vocals.  I’m So Hole – the cult Sheffield band. There may be simply a lot occurring right here….

Two of the members of Continental Liaison, Ryan and Bam, since lockdown have posted on Fb each week, an inventory of the entire music they’ve been listening to. It at all times comes up in my feed so I do know, intimately and graphically their style in music. They’ve very, superb style. Dub, post-punk, goth, traditional indie, cult classics and ‘misplaced’ heroes. They hearken to numerous the identical music I’ve over a lifetime-so-far and those I haven’t heard are principally cool, critically acclaimed stuff. Often there’s something which takes me aback – however their judgement and style is just about faultless.

So once they come to ask me to overview Analogue Coronary heart, my expectations are sky-high… This can be a band who’ve listened to the whole lot by Luke Haines, TV Personalities, The Monochrome Set…. but little of that exhibits of their sound and songs, not less than on a floor degree.

The dry vocal and bass-lines have a tendency to hold the songs with the digital sounds enhancing the vibe. There are guitars however the total sound is a bit too clear and digital for my preferences.

It’s a hanging and distinctive album. however one I discovered arduous to submerge myself in, till the ultimate monitor (Reflective Pt 1) which I hope is the final one written for the album and a pointer to their future sound.  Vini Reilly / Cocteaus guitar and a story lyric and delicate electronics.

Analogue Coronary heart is a wierd, darkish pop album suffused with damaging drive and a darkish vitality within the house between the digital and analogue sounds – the parched vocal is a commanding presence – seemingly humourless and soulless (till you learn the lyrics…. There are two variations of a tune known as Guidelines Okay – pattern lyric Liaison guidelines okay. )

And the album finish with three phrases…

Inventive – Optimistic  – Invincible

           …..

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All phrases Ged Babey