Our own and the future’s love affair with the 1980s continues in solid style with the release of the hugely enjoyable and retrotastic ‘Phantascope’ by the inevitably New York centered ‘Anubian Lights’. Brought together in 1995 by Tommy Greñas and Len Del Rio through a mutual love of Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Warp and Factory Records the band made their debut in 2001 with Nazbar via the now defunct Disc Hot Wax! Label. This time, however, the boys have brought in Adele Bertei on vocal duties. And what a neat bit of casting it is too. Having arrived on the New York punk scene with Peter and The Wolf in 1976, Adele is something of a modern renaissance woman. In the late-seventies she worked as Brian Eno’s personal assistant, where she introduced the old boffin to the music of New York’s lower East Side culminating in the legendary No New York LP. In the eighties, Adele read her poetry and prose in New York and Europe, opening for William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Kathy Acker. And then there was The Bloods, whose single Button Up graced the recent compilation New York Noise and her first single, Build Me A Bridge which was produced by Thomas Dolby, and a top 5 dance hit.
Musically, tracks like ‘Ultraviolet’ enter our consciousness via routes leading from wacky synth-lovers like Bent, Cornelius and Broadcast. Melodic, cute and totally immersed in 60’s psychedelic spy movies tracks like this, ‘Good Morning Spacegirl’, ‘Sargassa Sea’, ‘Thru The Wire’ and ‘Black Line Station’ provide a goofy, funky oil-spill of vintage signatures and ear-junk. Part punk, part nu-wave, part jazz, the whole glorious shebang is as indebted to The Fall and the Happy Mondays as it is to Henry Mancini and John Barry.
It’s no where near as exhaustingly retro as The Rapture, nor as edgy or eccentric as folks like !!!, Miss Kittin and Le Tigre – all of which it recalls in no small part – but fans of the poppier, more accessible no-wave elements will be gently amused by the jerky angularity of kraut gems like ‘Way Gone Man’ and ‘Shine’ which are literally bursting with eighties motifs and trademark beats. The inclusion of the Deborah Harry-esque ‘Lady Berlin’ may be a mistake – but it’s excusable given the liberal doses of underground rap and post-punk cleverness elsewhere.
In short, a perky little space-ride through a multi-dimension of eras. A little too deferential at times, but affectionate always.