Altar Eagle - Mechanical Gardens

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 16 Sep, 2010.

Who would have expected Brad Rose to be making shoegaze/pop tunes? Not I, but he's been doing it, (dream pop stuff that is) with his wife Eden (Apparently a techno head!!! Go girl!!) on vocals. She has a lovely voice and together they conjure up a magical shimmering brew of blissed out synths and enveloping experimental pop lullabies sometimes accompanied by a drum machine. I particularly like 'Spy Movie' with its juddering electro beats, lush vocal and heavenly synths. A bit of a departure for the Type label but a welcome one nonetheless.

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* Killer debut album from Altar Eagle, possibly the poppiest release on the Type label to date

* Highly Recommended to fans of Cold Cave, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

* Brad Rose (aka The North Sea) is probably the last person you’d expect to see at the helm of a pop album. A folk record - maybe, a noise record – sure, but pop? Probably not. Yet that’s exactly what he and his wife Eden Hemming have done with ‘Mechanical Gardens’. The ALTAR EAGLE sound might not come as much of a shock for those cassette collectors who have managed to source copies of the duo’s now rare debut EPs, but for the rest of the world it should serve as a radical change in direction for one of experimental music’s most valuable sons.

* The ear-splitting noise that enticed listeners on ‘Bloodlines’ is all but forgotten as Brad and Eden pick through shimmering dream-pop and cold-wave electronics with the greatest of ease. The quality is assured within minutes of the gorgeous Slowdive-esque opener ‘Battlegrounds’. Anchored by Eden’s humming, ethereal vocal tones, the song is a
glorious statement of intent and while the band go into clubbier directions on the second half, this song is a gateway to
their sound.

* Possibly the biggest surprise on ‘Mechanical Gardens’ is the sound shift which occurs mid-way through the record, as the bubbling bliss of ‘B’Nai B’Rith Girls’ gives way to the abrasive electro growl of ‘Monsters’. Influenced in part by Eden’s long-time love affair with techno and Brad’s recent obsession with synthesizers, the duo strike a perfect middle ground between crumbling experimentation and pop excess. This is rarely better explored than on ‘Spy Movie’, a track
that somehow combines the supposedly warring sounds of Juan Atkins and early My Bloody Valentine.

* On ‘Mechanical Gardens’ Brad and Eden have created an album that revels in its grab-bag of influences, but somehow they have managed to emerge with a sound that is totally singular. It’s pop music for sure, but un-cynical, atypical and hugely enjoyable.

TRACKLIST:

1. Battlegrounds 2. Honey 3. You Lost Your Neon Haze 4. B’nai B’rith Girls 5. Monsters 6. Spy Movie 7. Breakdown 8. Pour Your Dark Heart Out 9. Six Foot Arms

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