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Electric Penguins : Totally Dublin Review

  • 03-11-2006 02:08PM
    #1
    keithdowney
    Closed Accounts Posts: 253 ✭✭


    Taken from the latest edition of Totally Dublin magazine - A free publication available around Dublin City.


    ELECTRIC PENGUINS: Goodbye From The Electric Penguins
    (Psychonavigation)

    Originally envisaged as music without words, Goodbye From The Electric Penguins shows that sometimes it's better not to rush headlong into anything too soon. As well as containing musical passages of intense beauty this compelling album has at least three singles that supersede anything the Irish electro-pop cannon has shot before. Vocalist Mark Cummins has been involved in the music industry while residing in London but with Electric Penguins cohorts Paul Murphy and Sean Quinn he seems to have found the perfect niche for his ambient, wispy vocal style that harks back initially to a young Bryan Ferry or Paul Haig before revealing an upper register that evokes the icicle delicacy of Sigur Ros.

    Stylistically the band have pitched themselves between the almost classical tones of Brian Eno's more ambient work and the chilled-out pop of Air, as the heavily reverbed pianos of instrumental opener Gelb make way for the bouncy Supergirl, an inspiring single that gets the full lash of modernity on it's vocoder chorus. Soft landing shows how a simple repetitive riff allied with a great vocal can produce a memorable moment especially when its gorgeous melody line is as hauntingly insistent as this.

    Surprises abound throughout as the band adopt a tease mode when the toy box tinkling of Glass Random falls unexpectedly into the outrageous jazz chord of the year while the playful stomp of Answer The Phone is perhaps the album highlight, bringing to light what Bowie's Low may have sounded like if he'd been on an ecstacy bender in Berlin instead of a recovering cocaine addict.

    Coming from nowhere and bursting with supersmart ideas Goodbye From The Electric Penguins is a breath of fresh air in the overhyped Irish scene that celebrates itself.

    John Brereton – TOTALLY DUBLIN

    See also: Brian Eno – Music For Airports (EG) Sigur Ros – Sigur Ros (Big Cat) Air – Moon Safari (Source)


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