Do two crows constitute a murder? Perhaps they are merely a near-death experience? I don’t know; I’m not an ornithologist. What I do know is that beyond this wonderfully urban-gothic cover are four deliciously dark, sonically cool (in every sense of the word), and creatively exquisite tracks.
Black Rose Moves makes no bones about the era that inspires them and the bands whose sound is infused through their chilled and stark soundscapes. It is fair to say that they wear their musical hearts on their sonic sleeves and there is more than an echo of the formative post-punk scene’s dark side found here, and the sound of the early Sisters of Mercy and Mercyful Release label mates The March Violets are never far away.
It is not so much that they are trying to relive those heady days, more that they make music that is the logical extension of that early sonic melting pot. But if “Shadow Dance” sticks closely to the musical template that reached its high point with The Sisters’ majestic debut, First and Last and Always, opener “Lips Taste Blood” uses bass and beat to create an almost funky groove, indeed funky for this part of the musical map.
But it is “Jessica” that moves us into new territory, with that propulsive bass line and vocal delivery style more reminiscent of the likes of Joy Division, not a band regarded as traditionally goth but unequivocally a massive influence on what was created in that realm. Things are rounded off with “Summer of Sorrow,” a stark and emotive track running from understatement to anthemic at the flick of a switch, and not unlike the band that Depeche Mode eventually morphed into once their synth-pop days were behind them and they took the darkwave sound to a global audience.
Four great songs; did we expect anything less? And four songs that both champion and evolve those classic goth musical styles and draw a link between that early scene and the modern world, at least that part of the modern world that still remembers the essential elements that lay at the heart of the sound.
Actually, I should have just said that anyone out there playing shows with everyone from Gene Loves Jezebel, the grossly underrated Claytown Troupe and Vision Video to UK Decay and Clan of Xymox is obviously someone doing something right. Maybe I should have opened with that.
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