Reviews

Another Life by Losing Today

Tour support slots over the last few years for such exalted company as Front 242, John Foxx, Gary Numan and more recently for Sigue Sigue Sputnik perhaps offer an inkling that Greenhaus are a particularly special beast. ‘Another Life’ is the London based quintets third long player and sees them moving into lighter pop realms.

Sound wise ‘Another Life’ sees the band operating light years ahead of their original dark techno blueprint. Longing trip hop beats melt into guitar and electronics collages themselves fleshed out by curvaceous backdrops that soar and swerve between frozen wide-screen dramatics (as on the irresistible re-interpretation of the Cure’s ‘Plainsong’) and tripping euphoric elegance (‘Rockstar’). Perhaps coinciding with the arrival of vocalist / song writer Lahannya, a distinct sense of maturity and attention to melody has come to the fore, the overall vibe is one of chilled sophistication and darkly lit pop orientation harking back in many respects to those classic 4AD releases of the mid 80’s that many lovers of Throwing Muses, Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance may well warm too especially when confronted by the albums tempestuous title track which seductively manages to sound like a hybrid of the three.

Opening with the shimmering ‘It’s that time of the year’ which features Sandrine Gouriou from Seize on guest vocal duties (one of three guest vocalists the others being Swarf’s Liz Green on the infectious club groove of ‘See no reason’ and Roi from Mechanical Cabaret on the equally jaunty ‘Try Harder’), a beautifully bitter sweet cut that recalls the midway point between the Sundays and the Bang Bang Machine yet at it’s core illicits the same ache as to be found on those classic Dubstar singles. With it’s circular dynamics ‘Trigger’ proves to be one of the albums highlights, perfectly juxtaposing an upbeat glaze over a horror laden tale of the sense of fear and confusion following the Hiroshima bomb atrocity, Lahannya’s vocals take on an almost Bjork like innocence to float ominously over a clockwork rhythm that strangely sounds like a mutation between Kylie’s ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ and the frozen aloofness of Visage’s ‘Fade to Grey’.

Elsewhere the hypnotic wannabe shoe gaze ‘Solar One’ colourfully goes a-space hopping while the tripping space folk-isms of ‘So far to go’ with its majestic orchestral sweeps imagines a studio fist fight between ELO, Magnetic Fields and Air with Vengelis holding the coats. ‘Another Life’ also harbours moments of sobering grandeur; the touching introspective refinement of ‘Human Nature’ emerges from something icily haunting to storm lashed in the blink of an eye while clearly fusing together the best attributes of Clannad and Propaganda into some soul sapping incarnation. ‘Delusions’ similarly weaves its intoxicating charms before ascending to a heart stopping crashing crescendo. An astounding release we’d be forced to agree.

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