Screen Vinyl Image - "Remixes" (Custom Made Music 2010)
Screen Vinyl Image - "Ice Station" EP (Fan Death Records 2010)
Screen Vinyl Image - "Remixes" (Custom Made Music 2010)
Screen Vinyl Image - "Ice Station" EP (Fan Death Records 2010)
From Aural Innovations #41 (October 2010)
This is an EP. I haven't heard the original versions. Opening track Chaser is mixed by Hypefactor and pretty clearly harkens back to '80s gothy brit new-wave, slow, a bit on the dancey side, kinda catchy but not exciting. Until the End of Time: This one mixed by Remarkably Spry, spacier keyboards, noisey/phazey guitars more in the mix here, but the song itself is of a rather boringly somber tone, and says "I want you, I need you, over and over", etc. Cathode Ray is the band's own "drone mix": This is a good shoe-gazey/phazey/hazey tune, vocals only distant whispers and echoey loops, gets even more groovy once the pace picks up with a cool beat in the latter part. Another version of Until the End of Time, this one by I.H.M.C., and definitely beats out the first one, thanks muchly to the neato riff that's introduced mid-way... they might have based a track on this bit alone. The album closes with SVI's own re-mix of Passing Through Mirrors, which is another slow-ish dancey/shoe-gaze song, the keys become nicely spaced-out towards the end... still, overall a bit on the bland side. So... about a third good, a third so-so, a third expendable
Screen Vinyl Image - "Ice Station" EP (Fan Death Records 2010)
Hot on the heels of their remix project we have a new release from the DC based duo, which starts with two new studio tracks, the first of which is Siberian Eclipse: and it's in that bland depressive style that I hate to slag 'cause I don't know if it's a matter of taste, if it's been done better or just done to death... the icey-cold new-wave/goth/shoegazey style... the closest I can get to band comparisons would be perhaps Flying Saucer Attack meets Joy Division at times... simple programmed beats, keys, phased 'n' fuzzed guitar... the vox aren't exactly of the whisper or moan style, they're just... pretty plain. So go most of the tracks on this album... but now I can say some nice things: Such as the fact that the second of the new tunes New Visions is splendid - an upbeat catchy high-inducing spacer of a song! The next four cuts comprise the live set, one of which is Too Much Speed - a real beaut, this one has a nice feel, a happy tune, not unlike New Visions... and speaking of said tune, the live version might be even better than the studio - extended as it is they really get to chug the beautiful haze of the guitar and keys even further out into the cosmos, with added flange madness... stellar! The demo version of Siberian Eclipse has a lengthy ambient intro before the song proper, clocking in at ten minutes total... this intro is okay, they bend the wave-drones making it a bit of a queasy ride. The album concludes with a set of tunes from an '08 practice session, sounds like live in studio, but none of 'em float my boat, for the above stated reasons. Obviously the shining star is New Visions, so let's get more material like this, please!
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Reviewed by Chuck Rosenberg