Lycia - Empty Space
(Silber)
Following eight albums on Projekt, this 4AD/Cleopatra-styled Phoenix quartet briefly reunited to record this mostly instrumental final (albeit unfinished) album. With a sound firmly entrenched in the 80's Goth movement, it combines the pop sensibilities of The Cure, Love & Rockets and Echo and The Bunnymen with the moody, metallic synths of the Clan of Xymox (especially on openers "Not Here, Not Anywhere" and the instrumental "You Can Never Go Home Again"). "Persephone," despite lifting its title from an old Cocteau Twins' song, is a rather weak attempt at capturing the magic of Siouxsie and The Banshees, but Tara Van Flower is no Siouxsie, making the track that much more disconcerting. The closing "This Is The End" takes on new meaning (after fifteen years, it literally is "the end"), and the Al Jourgenson-meets-Tom Waits vocals over a depressingly foreboding dirge a la Fields of The Nephalim will be fodder to the ears of fans of the Minneapolis' industrial goth outfit, Skye Klad.
It's also obvious from the arrangements of the many instrumental tracks that Mike Van Portfleet has been listening to a lot of Durutti Column and Porcupine Tree albums. This compensates somewhat for the weak vocals and will no doubt be of great interest to fans of Vini Reilly and Steve Wilson's glistening guitar extravaganzas. The guitar lines tend to become repetitive to the point of exhaustion, but it's still a pretty relaxing, contemplative riff at that, and if you're in the mood for a dark guitar album, Lycia's final blast may be a welcome addition to your gothic prog collection.
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