This starts out with a thick slide into some new waved Peter Murphy echo reverb stained nightclub glow, and I’m tripping back into the 80’s. Then it shifts and moves, calling out to that same decade, but a little darker, a little more avant-angular. “Shortly Forgotten Pleasure” manages to combine a cool collection of sonic references into something that manages to feel original and maybe even a little futuristic. Fad Gadget meets M meets the Human League and they agree to work together for the greater good. Then, as the songs continue to play, a strange retro-futuristic déjà vu mood settles in.
This album was my introduction to Coffin Prick (aka Ryan Weinstein), but it grabbed me and spun me around, throwing me back to songs gone by. Turns out Ryan was in Coffin Pricks, playing some pretty hot post-punked in your face cuts. So, hence the solo name. Ryan is just one Coffin Prick. Releasing Laughing in 2023, and Side Splits in 2024. I’m not going to spend much time on these, but as Ryan moves at the rate of one album per year, it’s very interesting hearing the songs and sounds progress. He knows where he’s going, and each release gets us all a little closer. Each album manages to combine the noise and the new waves into more solid slices of strangely accessible sounds.
The title track moves a little into that sweet spot between industrial, electro, and goth, as staked out by bands like Severed Heads and Chris & Cosey in the 80’s, but with smoother vocals. Synth heavy melodics and brainworm rhythms that cut and slide into “Work”. A six-and-a-half-minute piece that begins with a spoken word that hits like Daniel Miller (The Normal) gritting teeth over a trippy Tear Garden soundscape but then it moves into and under your skin until only hypnotic sing-song electric waves remain, rolling along on the edges of a discordant carnival.
This album manages to find that perfect balance between pleasant and uncomfortable. Something feeling a little off in the songs, the hints of a John Lydon vocal catching on the guitar sharpened edge of a Throbbing Gristle riff. The dancefloor groove of a darkwaved disco pulsating under Bowie-esque keyboard hits and a little dub echo twisted by treble. It’s both unnerving and relaxing, and a little bit addictive.
Now I need to listen to the whole thing again.
