"Twenty
Twenty Sound"
EMI Records
CD, 497 2012,
12" 180 gm Vinyl LP, 497 2011
inc. special packaging
Debut from psych-prog trio on EMI's resurrected Harvest (Pink Floyd, Wire) imprint
Dark Star are
essentially Levitation minus Terry Bickers, the one-time House Of
Love guitarist having disappeared and renamed himself Tree. On I
Am The Sun and A Disaffection, Dark Star echo Levitation's brand
of bug-eyed psychedelia, galloping round in FX pedal shoes and
screaming at the heavens. More ambient dub-inflected noodlings
come in the shape of Lies, The Sound Of Awake and the aptly-named
Graceadelica. Favouring grooves and guitar frilliness over
conventional pop melodies goes some way to disguising
guitarist/frontman Christian Hayes's wan vocals and, though there
are few laughs ("Jesus was my age when he got nailed!"
they sob), Twenty Twenty Sound's weird, wired glumness is its own
unique brand of fun. Out there, and occasionally sparkling.
July 1999