I Love Space - SinfulSounds From A VintageCity

Mon 19th Jun, 2006 in Music Reviews

It would seem a highly unenviable task for an unknown band to endeavour to gain airplay or any semblance of recognition in the current musical climate, even more so if you aren’t a derivative rock group or a vapid contestant rejected from a reality TV singing show.  As much as we trumpet our penchant for watching live bands, very few actively support local Australian acts and it seems that anything that diverges from the rock by numbers formula is too unpalatable for mainstream Australia to digest.  It may seem like a sweeping generalisation but it’s the unfortunate reason why bands such as I ♥ Space are forever destined to be on the fringe of Australian music.  

Nevertheless, they are currently enjoying an endless rotation in my CD player and no matter how many times I hear the songs, with each new listen I pick up a hook or a melody that I had failed to hear on the previous occasion.  Not much is known about the Sydney based quartet but it’s certain that with their debut EP, Sinful Sounds From a Vintage City, they’ve created a hook laden melodic masterpiece that continues to resound within you, long after the CD has stopped playing.  

There are only seven songs on the EP (one being a hidden track) but their exemplary composition and complexity more than make up for the album’s brevity. This is music purely for the soul, the kind that acts as a salve for the dissonance and discord that life wreaks upon us. The slow and languid ‘Get You Up’ and ‘Turning Around’ are both moody, urgent paeans that strike a chord in every crevasse of your soul with their tortured vocals and imploring undertone.

Lead singer Joel Werner has a soft melancholic vocal that at times brings to mind Thom Yorke and this is no more apparent than the mellifluous ‘In Limousine Windows’. The songs are well written but it’s Werner’s strained vocals that give them their structure and without him they would be mere husks. The two highlights of the album are ‘The Kill’ with its soaring melody and captivating vocals that continually centre on the same refrain, “the kill, the kill” but make it sound like an engaging proposition nonetheless. ’Drop’ is an ethereal and dreamy composition with its languid melody and those mellifluous vocals, as thick and viscous as honey. Just when you think you have the song figured out it picks up the tempo and delves into melodic rock territory. It’s a highly engaging exercise into well crafted song writing.

The vocal driven ‘Birds Attack’ (used by Channel 10 to promote The OC) ends the journey a tad too early for my liking.  It hooks you from the very first bar and leaves you wanting more like a deranged dope fiend. The hidden track is a moody effects laden curiosity that instantly brings to mind early Gary Numan.  It’s inspiring to see them take a different approach and compose something completely different to the preceding works.

This EP has no distinct influences nor do I ♥ Space have a defining sound. At times they come across as indie pop, sometimes as shoegazers. There’s an element of early Beatles and the melodic prog rock of The Mars Volta but having said that, they’re nothing like them.  To put it simply, they’re I ♥ Space and I ♥ them so much it hurts.