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Single/Download Review
Partly Faithful Partly Faithful EPSelf-release
Article written by
Kev W - Mar 22, 2012
Supergroups, as we're all aware, can go either way. For every Bad Seeds or Travelling Willburys, the system spits out a Power Station. Partly Faithful's members may not be household names, but comprising variously of members of John & Jehn/Savages, Somewhere Outside New York, Screaming Banshee Aircrew and Nosferatu, they certainly have an enviable pedigree. Unsurprisingly given their past form, this first release as Partly Faithful sets its sonic GPS on the post-punk and Goth explosion of thirty or so years ago.
Things are kept tight and simple, there's no unnecessary instrumentation and this economical approach means these four tracks stay true to the ethics laid down by the bands who inspired them. 'Partly Faithful' is a web of spidery guitars, moody bass and forbidding drum thuds. It's a crisp sound and is taken a step further on 'Just Fine' which could happily grace an early Cure or Bunnymen album, pushing the tempo forward. The stuttering 'Strange Disease' lays down some dark atmospherics, again it's moody and intense. 'Your Song' could be the EP's crowning moment, its hints of Joy Division-esque despair come over like a younger brother to 'Atmosphere', petering away on a static electric fuzz. As débuts go this is a sterling effort, and the good news is that this supergroup have every intention of continuing what they've started.