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Cherry Blossoms At Night – Miserable Pyre Of Secrets
One person – Andrew Stromstad – is pretty much solely responsible for ‘Cherry Blossoms At Night’. According to the credits his contribution incudes strings, horns and ‘strange auxiliary instruments/percussion’. So unusual are some of these sounds Devo’s washing machine on its spin cycle honestly blended in, and at one point Devo asked the dog what he was barking about, only to find him utterly silent and sound asleep on the sofa. Interesting. The main veins of ‘Pulse’ are a little easier on the ear and have industrial echoes, but the rest of the song surrounding its chorus cannot be contained, going off on a tangent of bonkers beats, high pitched playing and ending as a thrash monster. The title track explores a different avenue altogether, loaded with cheerful synths and cleaner vocals with a monastic edge. ‘Lifetaker’, on the other hand, comprises chords not heard since the 1980s. ‘Cherry Blossoms At Night’; no boundaries, no genre, no shame.
Review by Jo Wright