
The Dead End Street Band - Murder [Psychic Field Recordings - 2013]Murder offers up three lengthy submersion into 70’s/80’s tinged bass bound synth horror, & (mostly) subtle noise tone fluctuations. The Dead End Street Band are a three piece project from North East of England, who have been active since 2011, and have so far released around 3 or 4 full length CDR’s, & a few split releases “Murder 1” opens with a slowly rising sea of brooding bass bound synth simmer ‘n’ drone, which is played over by subtle yet at times quite seared mixture of creeping ‘n’ ebbing textural fluctuations. As the track progresses the trio slowly churn out this malevolent ‘n’ noise pocked mark flow of retro electro texturing- moving from more firm & consistent drone based dwells, to more wondering & less focused textura llayered swims. “Murder 2” moves between more subdued yet taut breathing ‘n’ bass humming drone matter, to more pressing ‘n’ rising mixtures of noise hazes & brooding retro synth texturing. “Murder 3” opens in a state of undefined sonic murkiness mixing together low-fi crackle ‘n’ ebb, with growing ‘n’ wavering distant synth hover & retro fed feed back buzz. As the track progresses it starts to gain more brooding momentum, with more full focused synth layers coming into play- yet there’s still a very murky & aged feel to the proceedings. This track is the shortest of the three tracks here, and for me it’s the most successful as it features some consistently memorable elements, and it seems a little less wondering & a bit more focused than the other two tracks. On the whole Murder is a fairly satisfying & engaging enough journey in retro & dread fed synth scaping/ more subdued horror fed noise making. I just wish maybe some of the tracks had a few more memorable sonic centres or distinctive melodies appearing from time to time, because at times it does all start to sound a bit too samey for it’s own good. Also on a few occasions I felt the tracks wondered into rather bland & shapeless sound texturing too.
     Roger Batty
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