LIGHT ASYLUM - Light Asylum

Following the successful debut EP titled "Tension" and the subsequent teaser "Shallow Tears", both released two years ago, Light Asylum — the eclectic duo made up of producer and keyboardist Bruno Coviello (previously in synth-pop outfit Dreamies) and the formidable black voice of Shannon Funchess (already a session vocalist with !!!) — officially debut with their first full-length work.

Theirs is a formula that's simple to state but complex in execution: filtering dark-punk (the kind practiced by Joy Division on "Unknown Pleasures" and Wire on "154", but also early Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees) through the industrial template of The Fall and Nine Inch Nails, with schizophrenic, tightrope-walking synth lines set against the singer's aforementioned voice, a true force of nature, often coming across as far more baritone than a "normal" black voice and capable of making the sound even more sinister. This was, in fact, the formula the pair had already laid out on the acclaimed first chapter of their career, one that had promised a dazzling future every bit as much as this debut album manages to deeply disappoint.

The reasons for this flop lie in the duo's decision to break away, on more than half the tracks (six out of ten), from the dominion of dark and open up to a colorful, lively synth-rock, already vaguely present on the second EP (though that seemed like the exception), with drumming that's heavy but stripped of the vocal and instrumental anguish that seemed destined to become the duo's trademark, replaced instead by a vintage sheen that feels all too familiar and prematurely dated.

And yet the opener "Hour Fortress" seemed to confirm expectations of dark domination: an anguished, Cure-esque vocal where it's hard to tell that the voice — which seems to be reciting a dark ritual over a winking, almost tech-house backing — belongs to a woman, so bitter, at times acrid, yet powerful and virile is the tone she employs. The album's dark side then continues with echoes of Ministry, over an Aphex Twin-like backing and scratchy, raw, rough-hewn vocals on "Pope Will Roll" and the dark-house gallop of "Ipc", and of Nine Inch Nails in the industrial-rave scream of "At Will", where even Funchess's singing seems to brush up against Reznor and co. But that's where the album's dark section ends, amid good intentions and illusory flare-ups ("At Will" is the third-to-last track), with only four tracks living up to expectations.

The rest of the record, in fact, sheds every trace of punk or dark influence entirely, veering toward a synth-rock all too similar to the one already pursued by acts like !!!, steeped in all manner of new wave memories and painted to the core with dance hues. Funchess's voice, previously the constant protagonist, suddenly takes on a relaxed, almost detached tone, even turning feminine on some high notes; the synthesizers begin hammering out, first, booming wave passages vaguely winking at Depeche Mode's "Black Celebration" ("Heart Of Dust", light years away, however, from the trio's suggestive power), then melodic turns somewhere between Ultravox and late-period Alan Parsons Project ("Angel Tongue", terribly similar in its progression to the infamous "Sirius"), before embracing an almost glam romanticism on "Shallow Tears", with Funchess playing the crooner in the mold of Bryan Ferry and dissolving Coviello's melodic, melancholy textures.

With the final two tracks we move fully into synth-pop territory, vintage again but markedly danceable on "End Of Days" (an attempt to adapt to recent dance-pop trends?), and shamelessly pumped-up and melodic on closer "A Certain Person", a genuine pop song that wouldn't look out of place as a lead single to bring in some cash, but which, on a purely artistic level, has nothing to say.

All things considered, the duo's hard-to-justify choice to try to walk two paths at once doesn't pay off, since the "new" route of electronic pop-rock offers up a heavy recycling of already-heard sounds as well as a complete waste of potential — potential that is instead borne out by the excellent quality of the four tracks straddling dark and industrial. Light Asylum's is an opportunity thrown to the wind, one that can only be redeemed by a course correction in the nearest possible future.

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28/05/2012