COLD CAVE - Love Comes Close

The magnificent Eighties… Rock purists, as usual, will object that glossy magazines, paillettes and teased hairstyles had little to do with music, and that real rock was something else entirely. Tension, sweat, technique and guitars go-go. And yet it happens that certain records fall into your hands which may not make you radically change your mind, but at least give you pause. Yes, because nothing comes from nothing, but everything intertwines and tangles together. So you discover that the synthetic soul of the Eighties can coexist with the wildest spirit of rock. As in the case of Cold Cave.

"Love Comes Close" is essential, taut, "garage on the inside". Nine tracks and thirty-one minutes of lo-fi jubilation, synths splattered to the four winds and sonic pop grime that not even Jamie Stewart would be able to conceive. Caralee McElroy herself, former Xiu Xiu member, wades right into the songs' structures, with the harsh complicity of Dominick Fernow. Between tight regurgitations and psychedelic crackles ("Cebe And Me"), synth-pop earworm temptations ("Love Comes Close") and captivating deformities ("Life Magazine"), a dazzling opening plays out.

Then add the hot-disco anthem ("The Laurels Of Erotomania") and the delirium kicks in automatically. Laibach themselves even burst in ("Heaven Was Full") and circular saws lavish unexpected harmonies ("The Trees Grew Emotions And Died"), while a psychedelic mantra unfolds slowly ("Hello Rats").

And just when you least expect it, here comes another knockout blow: "Youth And Lust", between bone-dry beats and synth-pop d'antan.

If there were any justice in the world, even MTV would take notice.

It's Electronic Body Music? No, it's only rock'n'roll. 

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08/09/2009