Night Drive
What:
Night Drive
Who:
Chromatics
Where:
Troubleman Unlimited store
On:
Italians Do It Better
MySpace:
here
Related links:
Chromatics at MissingToof / Chromatics interview / mp3s at Red Blondehead
Envisage the Vanishing Point crossroads of German electronic Kraut and heavy-headed late night rock'n'roll. Portland trio, Chromatics, go there with spunk on the new Italians Do It Better disc release, Night Drive - a patient and affecting shake down of synth sequences, Alloy-tinged guitar melody, Hollywood Babylon production strength and all the creeps of standout UK darkwave. It's a heavy concept record using narrative devices - including lengthy set songs, stylistic sound effects, soundtrack-inspired transition pieces and all the analytical cool of a future robot space assassin.
The record opens with a hyperreal / druggy soundover of a girl leaving a club close to dawn; she rings her boyfriend, deadpans "I'm going for a drive", then sings outright: "When I came to this world / I arrived in a car". A propulsive, heady mix of minimal dance and Cure sublimity scrolls out as a highway passing underneath her, produced with a ‘70s grandeur and the reanimated cool of vintage analogue gear. ‘Healer' takes a brilliant lick of Joy Division and covers it in cellophane and elsewhere they weirdly make-up the perennial Kate Bush favourite, ‘Running Up That Hill'.
Release: Album
To Cure: A predictable playlist
Keywords: Chromatics
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