At night, even the staunchest atheist feels the desire for a Synth Pop prayer.
I wasn’t aware of Electric Litany, who have been active for fifteen years now, until I stumbled over their fourth album, got immediately interested and very shortly afterwards downright hooked to their dreamy yet enthralling sound.
That alone doesn’t say much about their music. A Synth Pop quartet from London? Could just be a rehash of Eighties’ Depeche Mode, right? And to be completely honest: If you took the exact Music For The Masses sound aesthetics and just wrote decent enough songs with that, we’d probably be on good terms already. But no, first of all Electric Litany actually hail from Greece, if that makes any difference. And despite unavoidable similarities set by the genre they desire something different. The vocals alone couldn’t – at least most of the time - be farer away from the sonorous depth and shouts of David Gahan and the kind of Post Punk-influenced tone of many of of his famous contemporaries like OMD.
But I hear you, of course there’s also A-ha and Bronski Beat – and Jimmy Somerville’s “Smalltown Boy” wail might be a fitting reference for the kind of emphasised falsetto Electric Litany are actually going for. Just imagine him mixed with the vocals of Empire Of The Sun and Sigur Rós and you know the territory we’re in!
And if you’re thinking the Icelandic Post Rockers might be a little far fetched: Actually no, because that comparison is also mirrored in the music, which skillfully balances between two poles; The first one is simplicity. As the success of Molchat Doma shows, one key element of creating great Synth Pop is a certain minimalism. Keep your sound repertoire clear and overseeable, because if you add too much just because you can, you might easily end up overproducing your music and making it feel like bland… for lack of a better word… well, Pop. On the other hand Electric Litany are somehow doing the exact opposite of stripping down, aiming for the wide, somehow blurry scenery of escapism which Post Rock and Shoegaze provide.
The result is a collection of ten often quiet Experimental songs elegantly moving between synthetic cold and organic warmth. Between obvious computer sounds and dynamic live drumming. Between simple keyboard melodies and mystically meandering guitars. There’s probably no way of demonstrating the spirit of juxtaposition better than going right to the middle of the album, when the sweet ballad “Prism” fades out with a beautiful trumpet solo, before the eery Industrial feeling of “Itor” first throws you into a different world, before it subtly and slowly drifts in and out of the overall dreaminess again.
The atmosphere of Desires reminds me of artists like Lethe of Of Blood And Mercury – and probably several more if I dug deep enough in my inner juke box. But noone comes to mind right now, who puts the parts together the way Electric Litany are doing it here.
Frankly – apart from one or two too quick fade-outs – the only thing which bothers me about this album is the uncanny valley I’m entering at closer inspection of the cover artwork, which despite its generally ok idea feels like a variation of Draugveil’s infamous Cruel World of Dreams and Fears. So who was the artist again? (I’m ready to sincerely apologize in case a real person actually created this.)
