The underground. Who really wants to be there? Or is it just a state of mind? In the last decade or so there’s been an inversion in what constitutes what we used to think was the domain of the mostly unloved – witness for example the frequency by which the likes of Slint, Fugazi or Madvillain are quoted these days in name dropping interviews or best of retrospectives.
One thing that can keep you underground however is making music which has little or no mainstream outlet. Lathe of Heaven are from Brooklyn and are made up variously from members of Pawns, People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Android and Hustler, a fact which coupled with their general shyness to be interviewed and negligible public profile is keeping them very much a word-of-mouth proposition at the moment.
This could change with Bound by Naked Skies, their first album and one that leans heavily on the reverb drenched theatrics of the Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke and sundry other early eighties British bands of that ilk. Their approach is mostly to attack this at speed, but when they throw some more thought into their process as on Moon-Driven Sea, some promise as songwriters is evident. For now though you’ll just have to keep your eyes and ears open and pray you can find them.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 