(Fortuna POP!)
Following a run of well
received singles the Dublin based five-piece September Girls have
shown up with their debut album Curse The Sea. They have spent
the last couple of years bringing together the harmonies of girl
group pop, swept under a wave of noisey guitars and organ keys and
put through a grainy and reverb laden wall of sound production.
Alongside the more pop moments, the record is filled with its fair
share of minor key melodies reminiscent of that point where post-punk
met goth music in the early eighties with jagged tremolo guitar lines
and heavy drums which alongside the dream pop vocals create a fitting
balance between bubblegum and misery.
Starting with the
title track Curse The Sea's quick tempo and soft vocals seem to share
a sound with another Irish group, touching on My Bloody Valentine's
jangly noise from around the time of their You Made Me Realise
EP. This sound reveals itself through the album; in the high energy
ferocity of album closer Sister with its swirling guitar distortion
and relentless drum rhythm and the dark twang of the guitar lines on
the dark pop of Another Love Song.
One of the bands first
singles shows up here and with good reason, Heartbeats is a perfect
slice of noise pop, its four chords running along on a surf rock
beat. The lyrics concerns themselves with relationships that never
really make it of the ground, 'I'm not your boyfriend' accompanied
by a back up of oohs it
comes across like The Jesus & Mary Chain covering an early
Beach Boys single. The group's pop-penning chops
are also on show on the sunnier and punky Someone New and the beach
combing rock of Talking. They rarely break away from the three minute
(noise) pop format and with the groups penchant for darkness it often
feels like a twisted take on the Phil Spector guided girl groups of
the sixties. There are plenty of girl group touchstones, with call
and response vocals on Green Eyed and the layered vocals of the
lovelorn Shangri-Las-like Daylight, repeating 'I can't sleep at
night' as lush harmonies
wash together with the bands many voices weaving together in their
ocean of sound.
The reference points
are sometimes a little obvious but instead of blatant emulation, you
get the feel of admiration for these eras of pop, whether its the
sweetness of the sixties are the darker eighties guitar music. For
those who like something a little rough around the edges there is a
lot to enjoy here and beneath the layers of noise there is a real pop
core to the song writing.
Originally posted on figure8magazine.co.uk
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