Museum: traces of (Inakustik/Yellow Eye)

 |   |  <1 min read

Museum: Midwinter
Museum: traces of (Inakustik/Yellow Eye)

In the shorthand of the internet (where this group gave away their first two EPs) this is “for fans of Interpol, Bauhaus, Placebo . . .” which is helpful, but doesn't explain everything about this four-piece rock outfit from Germany.

Although this debut album sometimes seems more alt.New York/New Wave or angsty-Anglorock than hip'n'happening Berlin, they have a pared back approach which doesn't discount a sense of widescreen grandeur (Feast is a Feast, For the Very First Time), and while they sometimes work repetitious melodic figures that add to the intensity (the slow-burning With Love).

Museum aren't short on pop (the chipper sounding but dark And Now like mid-era Blur, the sonically manipulated ballad The Have or To Be) or averse to nodding towards slashing electronica (the brooding The Law) and even come off a little like Kraftwerk with guitars.

Be darned of that ain't cowpoke alt.rock on Eden.

After about eight of these 11 songs their reach for the grand gesture gets a little wearisome . . . although, as its title suggests, the penultimate Midwinter changes the mood towards the Smiths.

Overall, like the car on the cover, finely tooled but damaged.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Hot 8 Brass Band: On the Spot (Tru Thoughts/Rhythmethod)

Hot 8 Brass Band: On the Spot (Tru Thoughts/Rhythmethod)

Out of the many guests at this weekend's Womad you can guess that these guys from New Orleans – who deliver up pop-funk classics alongside originals and familiar tunes with their own twist... > Read more

SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases

SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases

Facing down an avalanche of releases, requests for coverage, the occasional demand that we be interested in their new album (sometimes with that absurd comment "but don't write about it if you... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Various Artists: If You're Not Part of the Solution (Ace/Border)

Various Artists: If You're Not Part of the Solution (Ace/Border)

As we've previously mentioned, if you are a DJ seeking out rare grooves, obscurities and deep cuts (and whatever the current jargon is), then compilation like this must be very irritating.... > Read more

MARK WILLIAMS, SWEET TRIALS, CONSIDERED (1976): It was drag, and a drag

MARK WILLIAMS, SWEET TRIALS, CONSIDERED (1976): It was drag, and a drag

A bit later in life Mark Williams, originally from near Dargaville, could accept that the way he dressed – feminine clothes he'd made himself, eye-liner and make-up beneath a teased Afro... > Read more