Dead Mellotron - Glitter

What can I say about Dead Mellotron? I've never heard of them and know nothing about them, not even their label knows much about them. The story goes that they were picked up by Sonic Cathedral on the strength of some Myspace demos, and after a bit of e-mailing tracks back and forth and back and forth, they've arrived at this, their debut album. It clocks in at under 30 minutes and contains only seven tracks, segued together with instumental interludes between each one, a la Loveless, and it's really, really good. The sound is very of the moment, lo-fi, post punk tinged shoegaze; theres reverb, buried vocals, fuzz, tremolo arm gliding and primal beats all mashed together and hurtling along in a woozy maelstrom of sound.

From the moment the drums and riff of opening track 'Stranger' kicked in I was hooked by the sense of urgency, potency and attitude pouring into my ears before stopping dead into an ambient interlude before it had really sunk in. The six songs that follow gave me the same feeling, they're so short that by the time you've got into their groove they've begun to disintegrate slowly into an ethereal psychedelic landscape only to emerge a minute later as the next track, an interesting technique that really works on this record and gives it a feeling of completeness it otherwise wouldn't possess. The way that 'Can't See' crumbles bit by bit into noise then re-emerges as 'Bye' is just brilliant as is the following track ,the heavily My Bloody Valentine inspired 'Making Up'.

The record ends with several slower tracks that contrast nicely with the openers and ends on the beautiful, ethereal 'Dying'. The melody is perfect, as is the groove of the track, and the Pumpkins 'Today' style three note riff that comes in half way through and repeats over the songs fluid movement is inspired, as is the chaotic collapse into itself that forms its end and the end of the album. 'Dying' closes what is a brilliant debut from a band that shows so much promise and flair for great songwriting.

Glitter is a rough record in terms of it's production, but every track buried beneath the noise is pure diamond; think the Smith Westerns debut. Like some of the tracks contained in it, I would have liked Glitter to be a bit longer, but it isn't and I guess it really doesn't need to be. This is a great record, you need to hear it and that's really all there is to say about Dead Mellotron.