Tuesday, July 3, 2007  9:49 pm 

Hailz the Nite

Crossover are truly, madly, deeply within a world of their own. But all the better for it as, judging by the way the real world is going, imaginary realms are totally where its at. They sat awkwardly within the pneumatic techno and acid-house landscapes of International Deejay Gigolos with neon pentagrams etched across their alien hearts. They released “Fantasmo” in 2OO1 and made all the other Electroclash posers look like the amateurs that they clearly were. I saw them play that mad shit live in London one time; Dez wrapped phone wire around himself and headbutted his drum pads to the beat while Verona channeled the Love Goddess of Phobos and hypnotised us mere mortals with her otherworldly ways. Then came the criminally overlooked “Cryptic And Dire Sallow Faced Hoods Blast Off Into Oblivion”, born from the unholy union of synth and Venusian mecha-snake with help from Carlo Penisi, of Goblin.

We aren’t too sure whats happening with the Gigolos partnership nowadays, I guess its defunkt, but who cares when they are releasing CDR’s by themselves! And when they are as good as the new one its time to do the Satanic jig to its drumbeats and pitch-dark synth cackles!

Crossover - Night Hawks

If they ever make a film of Black Hole (which I sincerely hope they don’t), ‘Night Hawks’ needs to feature on the soundtrack, with its cloaked figure shifting through trees in the moonlight sensibilities. Those Night Hawks sound nasty and parasitic but in a cool way, when danger can sometimes be fun, y’know, like fighting a bear or stealing dinosaur eggs. Either way its the menacing drum pounding of Pagan troll parties deep in the woods that you can faintly hear from your bedroom window.

Order the CDR from the Crossover myspace page.

Back now to the icey chill of the Chromatics campfire underneath a canopy of icicle covered palm-trees, lit by the frozen blue Moon. A new CDR is being forged in the furnaces of Italians Do It Better and here is the title track:

Chromatics - Night Drive

Chromatics go pop! In their own special ways of course, this isn’t ex-Sugababes sampling The Human League and mentioning Prince a couple of times in the chorus, this is the dukes of 2O12 apocalypse disco riding through your city in the small hours of the nite, windows down, collars up.

‘Night Drive’ is a close cousin of ‘In The City’, just more urgent and yet a little more whimsical with the effortless glimmering vocals of Ruth, Princess of Neptune. If ‘In The City’ was a cruise through the concrete metropolis, then ‘Night Drive’ is the journey through star-lit country roads back to the castle.

labels >> big green head, disco, forests, nite, skulls, the moon, trolls