Cart-wheeling it’s way through the speakers of the sound system, and into my tatty bedroom, THE DOUBLE’S spooky, dead-pan psychedelic album ‘Loose in the Air’ has all the charm of a schizophrenic, twisted circus.
Sounding like it was recorded in a boiler cupboard, the creaky industrial noises, spiky whirlitzers, heavily distorted guitars, and David Greenhill’s slightly off key vocals, all serve to pile on the claustrophobia. The overall effect is the creation of delicate, pretty melodies, corrupted with ugly noises and a menacing, tense undercurrent of lunacy. If mental illness
had a soundtrack, this would be it. Drunken, hallucinatory, and in the throws of blind madness, with aching moments of clarity.
The sound is flat and oppressive, making it feel like they could be playing in your bedroom - if your bedroom was a cellar, and you were in a low budget scary movie. One would think that listening to The Double and reading Edgar Alan Poe would go together perfectly, like Pimms and cucumber sandwiches.
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Reading this so far you’d get the impression that I was talking about an album by Mr Bungle or something, but don’t worry, that’s not the case. This errs more towards The Cure, and maybe the sounds you’d hear in a haunted funfair, “The windows, the doors/The shadows, the floors/Are heavy in here…”
Don’t be fooled – beneath this weird cacophony is a collection of very beautiful songs. It makes a refreshing change to listen to an album that drips with atmosphere, and that instantaneously ignites the imagination. Although I’ll probably be having quite a few nightmares after listening to this one.
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