Swedish ElectroPop eccentrics Pacific! are finally on the verge of dropping their second album, ‘Narcissus’. Originally conceived at the soundtrack to a ballet the record works amazingly well sans avant-garde dancers in frocks.
From it’s ominous harpsichord opening the album you still feel there is something a bit proggy, a bit conceptual, about the album but the music speaks for itself. Like Jean-Michel Jarre on bad (or good) acid this album is in part atmospheric and enveloping (and a little scary!) but also sweeping and electronic. Washes of Jarre mix with hints of Goldfrapp (on the vocal tracks). Like felloe Swedes The Knife there is something of the avant-garde here but similarly they have managed to cram the experimental and leftfield into Pop songs and get away with it making the edgy and unsettling elements to Pacific!’s music soon feel strangle comforting.
They have laid out the record really well to, spacing out properly structured upbeat tracks like ‘Narcissus’, ‘Unspoken’ and ‘King Of The Knight’ with their floaty instrumental works such as ‘Cupid’ and ‘Halfheart’ to give the feeling (even without aforementioned avant-garde dancers in frocks) of narrative.
‘Narcissus’ drops 11th October on Alan Braxe’s Vulture label.
