I know, I’ve been hyping the goth revival for a while now, and when I saw that Russian act Scofferlaine dealt in Bauhaus-style post-punk, I felt kinda vindicated, as though the momentum was really beginning to build. After all, there are few things more gratifying than being right.
Sadly, Scofferlaine sound fuck all like Bauhaus at any point in their wildly varied career. But then, Bauhaus always produced art-school new wave rock and I recall spending hours in the second-hand record shop I worked in not making lists as in High Fidelity, but bickering with the owner and the other staff over the categories. Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus and The Sisters of Mercy I the ‘goth’ section? Pah! New Wave, the lot of ‘em! The Cure too.
Scofferlane aren’t even goth in the way The Rose of Avalanche were goth. Does it matter? No, not really. For the most part, it’s a fairly standard rock album with a dark, post-punk edge, but that isn’t to say it’s by any means bad. If anything, Scofferlane are selling themselves short, in that they push in various directions and have some decent songs top boot. The title track is a sleazy stroll down a succession of backsteets late at night and sounds like Nick Cave wandering into a strip club, while
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‘I Awoke’ is a frenzied slab of rockabilly skiffle that’s really rather good.
There’s a mystical far-Eastern motif to the sultry, seedy ‘Single Finger’, while ‘So Pretty’ veers maniacally from here to there. ‘Home’ is almost a ballad, but boasts an alt-rock slant and judders sufficiently to set it apart. Elsewhere, ‘Ode’ boasts a clean, choppy guitar set against a relentless, shuffling beat. It nags and it nags and it’s not long before it’s burrowed into your brain.
The last track, ‘La Nuit’ is a swaggering beast that proves a fitting conclusion to proceedings, and while ‘Veto’ isn’t the album you might expect it to be, it’s still worth checking out if you’re on the market for a rock album with a dash of dramatics. As long as you’re not hoping to hear a 21st century take on ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, or a song to rival ‘The Passion of Lovers’ or even the avant-funk snap of ‘Kick in the Eye’, you won’t be too disappointed.
Scofferlane Online
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