This new Swedish band, straight out of the dour wastelands of Stockholm, really are called A Projection and are on the cool German label Tapete. They sound, however, like they spent the early 1970's growing up in Macclesfield or Stockport as they sound remarkably like Joy Division and have artwork that could be said to re-work the artwork for Joy Division's Still album. I am sure, though, that they don't remember the early 70's as I doubt they are that old.
The album opens with Exit; a nice doom-y Joy Division style song not far from, say, Decades or Isolation and continues exactly the same way on Camera, which sounds even doomier than Terminal Gods take on a similar sound.
Young Days speeds things up a bit so that they sound more like Savages than Joy Division with some backing vocals that could be from a Cure song, but it needs some seriously herky-jerky dancing to go with it. Reborn is a bit more widescreen and opens things out a bit as they sound like Joy Division with X-mal Deutchland for company. A cool tune.
Solid is...well, a solid slab of minimal goth dark wave that should be about industrial decay in Manchester rather than whatever they are singing about. Another Face seems to be A Projection trying to cheer themselves up and have a bit of an upbeat moment. Not TOO upbeat, mind, but happier than the rest of the album, like they have just heard some early A Certain Ratio singles. No they don't just wanna be another Joy Division covers band.
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This Is Not Me goes back to the default Joy Division path. Things are dark but rather predictable. Retrospection seems to be them musing in retrospect if it's ok to be influenced by Japan as well as Joy Division. It's OK and it also has an amazingly cool instrumental passage which lifts it somewhat.
The Laughing Garden isn't a cross between Bowie's Gnome and the Laughing Clowns but another dark dancehall Depeche Mode number meets...well you guessed it. The album closes with Faith. No, it's not a Wham cover (more's the pity) as that would have been interesting. No, this sounds like they really want to be singing We Walked in Line but aren't. It makes for a strong conclusion to an album that for me is a little bit too derivative of Joy Division for its own good. Strange, then, that the press release mentions New Order as an influence and not their famous previous incarnation.
A Projection online
Tapete Records online
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