The debut album from The Long Dead Sevens, produced by Boris ‘Mephisto’ Wilsdorf (Einstuerzende Neubauten’s producer), is startling in both it's natural beauty and it's sublime darkness. Careful attention to detail was taken in the recording of this release, as evidenced by the thick atmosphere, which sort of places you in a new space during the entire listening experience. Wooden instruments resonate in an American Western/Gothic hybrid of sound reminiscent of Woven Hand or 16 Horsepower, and the theatrical lyrical delivery throughout the album brings to mind Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at their finest.
The album as a whole moves very easily along, and somewhere along the way the Americana influences seem to vaporize, and you find yourself in a dark miasma of trance-inducing drones and chants, with analogue synthesizers swelling and heaving like magma from the speakers. The lyrical content and singing style of vocalist Nick Cliff seems to bridge the gap between these worlds seamlessly, and in fact, seems to steer the album to this (now apparent) logical conclusion.
Kudos to Beta-lactam Ring Records on the exquisite cover art, which is presented in an ultra-heavy book cover type stock, which I have never seen before- which somehow makes buying records seem as important, and as worthwhile an endeavor as the long gone days of vinyl. The struggling record industry as a whole could learn something from the likes of Beta-lactam Ring Records. In my opinion, this is how records are supposed to be made. High marks all around.
Check out some samples HERE
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