The mood and aesthetic of Litanies can best be summed up by the fact that it was originally released on cassette. Royal Baths’ willingness to release music on a deader than dead format says a lot about the bands approach to music, as well as the songs themselves, which sound like tracks recorded thirty years ago, recently dug up from a time capsule buried by gloomy goths and obsessed record collectors.
This CD and vinyl rerelease sees a track added and the artwork changed, but little else tampered with. What remains is one of the most compelling records of the year – a swirling mix of post punk and psychedelic rock that is as murky and gloomy as it is refreshing and refined. Starting with the slow, lumbering “After Death” the mood of the song, and consequently the record quickly finds its way under your skin. Fuzzy guitars offset the disturbingly lingering vocal harmonies, odd scales and bum notes folding round a hypnotic drum beat. The dirge of it is the point and it works wonderfully. Whilst the rest of the record revolves around similar themes and moods it never gets stale. “Nikki Don’t” features a surprisingly straight forward and catchy hook in the verse, “Sitting In My Room” plays like a particularly twisted slice of Americana, and standout track “Sinister Sunrise” is a full on freak out.
At a brisk thirty-six minutes the record unfolds in a satisfying way, but also hints at greater depths for the band to explore. The obvious comparisons are The Velvet Underground and, more recently, Clinic, but this is a fantastically original and confident debut that, whilst sometimes feeling a little underdeveloped, promises great things.
Conclusion - Dark, twisted and vital.
[...] Review: Royal Baths – Litanies [...]