Luxury Car – When I Was Good

Album Review by Chris Buckle | 17 Feb 2011
Album title: When I Was Good
Artist: Luxury Car
Label: Biphonic
Release date: 28 Feb

Biphonic seems an appropriate label for Luxury Car – partly because brothers John and William Robertson are audibly kindred with label-mates Swimmer One, but also because their sound sutures two aesthetics: plaintive ballads crooned by John, sewn to spiky electronics that have previously brought comparisons to Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.

The result, on Discrete Packets, evokes an Angelo Badalamenti score left to deteriorate in the rain, allowing glitches and scratches to permeate its sophisticated membrane to settle at its core. The combination is novel yet familiar, and works well, though when the Perth duo claim zero affinity with the likes of Pet Shop Boys or Soft Cell, they may be overstating matters (for instance, there’s a definite echo of Depeche Mode in the chorus of new single I Play The Guitar). Affecting lyrics hit the heart while the electronics hit the rest, resulting in an intriguing synthesis worth multiple visits. [Chris Buckle]

http://www.idriveluxurycars.co.uk