Phobos 3 - Melody For Sleep
(Nameless)
Well, the band members say themselves that they spent a lot of time going to see Spacemen 3 and Loop and MBV when growing up, so that saves me part of this review pretty easy. This is the British trio's second full album and if you add in a slew of things like Bowery Electric in semi-beat-phase and Chapterhouse in similar phase to account for the touches of techno beats here and there, then all is perfectly clear. Drone! Swirl! Shuffling drums, dance-influenced builds and breaks! Song names like "Backward Falling Stars" and "Invisible Spirits!" There, I'm done.
Except not entirely. Given all this, there is a healthy amount of mean psychosis lurking in the album too, which is probably where they learned their lessons well from Loop in particular, who were all about being pissed off and by the end of its career were about killing everything ever. Then Robert Hampson formed Main and got even more antisocial, but Loop remained a good object lesson in getting fried but NOT getting blissed and Phobos 3 learn it, even if they don't take it all the way. Musically there's a touch more bliss in the end on Melody for Sleep, perhaps, but again some of the song titles are telling—"Stabmasterarson," "Crazy Reenie," "Thick Smoke Rising," "Looking for a Place to Die," and so forth. On most of said songs and a number of others, somewhat menacing samples (think Loop again, like "Shot With a Diamond") and acid fried solos snuggle up against the electronic breakbeats, dramatic tension hanging thick in the mix instead of only exultation. So credit to Phobos 3 for not ignoring the downbeat side of the continuing guitarfuzz trip.
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