With such a louche band moniker and Don Juan-esque album title you’d be forgiven for expecting DON SMOOTH to sound like some Soul/R ‘n’ B ‘Lovers Guide’ or even a piss-take of said genres. Instead this London trio proffer Indie Rock coupled with epic pretensions and a pervasive whiff of 80’s alternative rock.
If any one band informs DON SMOOTH’s sound it is Placebo. Their influence looms large across the album at regular intervals. Opening track ‘Tick Tock’ and others such as ‘Hate’ retain the clear mark of Moloko and co. but fortunately there is enough distinctiveness in tracks like ‘Love Machine’ (with its Morricone guitar ‘twang’ and cinematic space) to suggest that other significant influences are entering the mix.
It’s mainly the alt/Goth rock of the early to mid 80s from which DON SMOOTH seek musical inspiration and sonic persuasion. To wit, ‘Take A Ride’ brings to mind The Comsat Angels and The Psychedelic Furs while ‘An American’ could be pre New Gold Dream Simple Minds. Also present in patches is the modern sonic trickery of Nu-Metal acts like Linkin Park, infiltrating the guitar, bass and drum with bursts of deck-based sounds and samples.
The production is perhaps the smoothest aspect of this collection and the band excel in demonstrating that updating Banshees/Sisters of Mercy basslines - second track ‘Without Me’ virtually lifts verbatim the guitar hook of ‘Temple of Love’ - for the 21st Century is a path worth forging. Lyrically there is a preoccupation with Sex (‘Love Machine’) and Politics (‘Tomorrow’s World’) and the net effect of their words is a suggestion of impending but not altogether disagreeable doom. Andrew Eldritch would be proud.
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At times pretentious but consistently intriguing ‘Art of Seduction’ occasionally falls short of its epic aspirations and lapses into style over content. The odd track feels incomplete as if the band were unable to finish these songs to a high enough standard to match the palpable ambition of their sonic template. Even when it all works they also risk falling foul of the kind of accusations that were levelled at bands such as Curve: i.e. with so much emphasis on crafting a “so hip it hurts” sound is there any room left for soul and a human face to this music?
At this early stage these are disproportionate quibbles and with ‘Art of Seduction’ the band convinces that there are plenty more worthy Post Punk styles to pilfer for today’s generation to rediscover.
Oh, and for the record: DON SMOOTH is a crap band name.
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