‘For fans of Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke and Gary Numan,’ the press release intimates, and it’s not hard to hear why. ‘Anti Social Network’ is one of those albums that is, in many respects, a manifestation of broad and deep research into the music of a certain style and a certain period which paints Calling All Astronauts as being one of those ‘goth magpie’ bands. That’s not an explicit criticism, and perhaps I need to contextualise a bit here.
An immense fan of The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Fields of the Nephilim, The March Violets, Skeletal Family, James Ray, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and many more in my teens and early twenties, I found myself frustrated by many of the ‘second division’ bands like The Rose of Avalanche, Salvation after they’d split from Merciful Release, and much of Rosetta Stone’s output. None of it’s bad music, but it feels like a compressed derivation of all the bands I like, only not as good. This frustration extended into the bands of the 90s goth revival or ‘darkwave’: Suspiria were good, most of the other bands who emerged through labels like Nighbreed were only so-so.
So listening to Calling All Astronauts’ second album ‘Anti Social Network’ calls forth a certain personal angst. The sounds are all sounds I like and react to on an almost biological level. Staccato lead guitar runs swathed in a blend of chorus, reverb and flange with a hint of tube crunch trip their way over some chunky, chuggy semi-industrial rhythm guitar. There’s a throbbing four-four bass style, urgent sequenced drums with a bit of a murky sound and some edgy synths. And let’s not forget the down-in-the-boots vocals bathed in a wash of heavy echo. They resonate deep and remind me of so much. But these things also remind me of the derivative bands that constitute so much of the scene and have forever kept me away from goth club nights
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Maybe I’m overanalysing. It’s something I’m prone to doing, and as everyone knows, before emo there was goth (the thinking person’s emo with better clothes and music). But I can’t help but hear infinite references, rehashed and refracted. It’s a battle. I like it. But it nags at me.
And so ‘The American Dream’ sounds like a James Ray’s Gangwar knockoff. A good one, but a Gangwar knockoff nevertheless. The snarling industrial / EBM of ‘Time to Fight Back’ pounds hard with a stomping beat and grating guitars providing the backdrop for an abrasive and heavily treated vocal delivery. In contrast, ‘Life As We Know It’ amalgamates ‘Closer’ era Joy Division synths, trippy shoegaze guitars and a busy, baggy beat. Both are good, but operate within varying degrees of the generic.
But then, there’s no escaping a killer tune with a real sense of atmosphere: ‘Always Be True’ may well sound like James Ray remixed by New Order, David B’s baritone vocal gliding over explosive snares, and ‘Look in Your Eye’ tunes the guitars to stun and blasts in with a choppy guitar that’s straight out of 1983 and hits right between the eyes. And that’s what matters. ‘Anti Social Network’ is very much the product of its influences, but that doesn’t diminish its strength as an album. It’s a strong set of songs, varied, and neatly executed. You really can’t argue with that.
Calling All Astronauts Online
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