Sense Of Scenery - The Disaster Of Imagination (Independent)
I am immediately reminded of the music that followed the explosive 70’s punk movement, the new wave of bands that emerged from the twilight after realizing that dark and morbid were a good combination. Atmospheric, almost regimented music, with the vocals providing a moody coating of seriousness, which the lyrics reflect. The electronic keyboard element combines with angular guitar, a rigid pulsating percussion, and we are in 1984 – the book, not the precise year, mind you. A dark period of make believe life drawn for us by the dark vision of George Orwell. This is an equally dark piece of music, drawn this time by the vision of one Sean Douglas, the SOS mainman. If they remade the film of the book now, he should certainly be called upon to make the soundtrack. Evidence of this is the instrumental “Arielisms”, which captures a mood of murky austerity that is quite unsettling, as well as gorgeous.

Even if we have been here before with the likes of Joy Division and The Sound, Sean Douglas and SOS bring a new shade of grey to the proceedings, coming, as they do, from north-west Canada in the noughties and not north-west England in the eighties.

This is not, however, miserable for miserable’s sake. It is just a dark, strong tapestry of words put to a dark, stern musical set. Listen to it with a touch of optimism if you can, and you will spot some new tilled earth in the furrow that they plough so earnestly.
www.myspace.com/senseofscenery
Kev A.

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