Relocating to Venice for the recording of Deeper has, it is safe to say, provided Luis Vasquez with plentiful opportunities to make the album as full-on and emotional as he'd wanted to. Whilst the resultant album is not exactly Pretty Hate Machine the likes of 'Wrong' manage to pack a heavier punch both musically and emotionally than you may have up until now credited it possible for The Soft Moon name to be associated with.

Whilst the band's self-titled debut and its follow-up Zeros tended towards their respective ends to feel repetitive in terms of ideas as well as beats Deeper, with its sparse, single word titling manages to be a collection of utterly distinct songs. A lot of which end up being fist-pumpingly life-affirming ('Desertion', 'Black', 'Far') as only the best of such works can be as negative emotions go through the cathartic wringer of expression and come out the other side with their polarity reversed. The freedom of a trouble shared being one halved.

Not that the Stranglers-like bass and other beloved elements of the Soft Moon sound have been sacrificed to some kind of Bauhaus-meets-Depeche Mode bastard disco make-over, they're all still there just with an added amount of pace & urgency amongst the layers of sound providing a propulsive edge to the bulk of the songs. The cold-wave has warmed up somewhat. In fact the album's title track is positively tropically tribal in its sound.

In a live setting there's a very good chance that these 10 songs are going to fast become the highlights of shows, dropped in to build momentum after a few of the older numbers have established the more solemn mood you'd initially expect. In going Deeper Luis Vasquez & producer Maurizio Baggio may have taken a year to come through but it's all light at the other side of this particular tunnel.

Deeper is available from amazon & iTunes.

Personally I found it hard to believe that this is only Fawn Spots' debut album, having first encountered them live two summers ago at Wakefield's Long Division festival. On the strength of that performance (& the brief look I had at them again in the same venue, though not part of the festival proper, last September) I'd expected there to be at least a couple of full-length releases under their belts.

That not being the case though what have they brought to the table with From Safer Place?

 A full-on rendering of their frantic live performances is what. Opener and initial single 'New Sense' nails their colours firmly to the mast as they blaze away at paint blistering, post-hardcore speed. York's probably not thrown up many acts of this nature but everyone has to come from somewhere.

Second single 'Black Water' is another case in point as it aims to pummel you into submission in between offering lighter instrumental respite for a couple of brief spells. Getting pounded on by the contents of the album is though mainly what sums up the experience of listening to it. Other than Husker Du and Nation Of Ulysses most of the older acts the band have been compared to never seem to have enjoyed long careers or made the leap from sub-genre to well known but that's hardly any reason to be reticent about getting ideas down on tape and out there to the masses.

'In Front Of The Chestnut Tree' is the album's one mis-step, a curious groovy instrumental that turns up a couple of songs from the record's end. It probably comes over better live when delivered with more pace but, programmed in where it is in the running order, here it disrupts the deluge that you're otherwise subjected to. Which is a shame as the water's lovely and you should give yourself up to it.

From Safer Place is available from amazon & iTunes.