Death In Vegas - Trans-Love Energies

Death In Vegas - Trans-Love Energies
Genre: Electronica/Rock
Rating: 2/10

Just under seven years on from the bands last official studio album 2004's Satan's Circus down tempo electronica rock outfit Death In Vegas return with Trans-Love Energies. The bands trademark sound mixes traditional rock elements with down tempo syths, samples and keyboards to make interesting compositions with an eerie yet euphoric vibe. Having collaborated with big names like Liam Gallagher and Iggy Pop the band achieved a lot of commercial exposure as well as critical acclaim during the late nineties/early noughties. All of this has lead to quite a buzz around Trans-Love Energies the bands fifth studio album.

Unfortunately after a long period of dormancy expectations will slowly become higher and Trans-Love Energies cannot compete with the hype that surrounds it. The album sees the band venture further into the territory of live instrumentation as organic drum beats replace drum machines and samples. Whilst this very tactic was what made so many of the bands previous releases stand out from the electronica and dance scene the music on offer here seems like less of an interesting hybrid of dance and rock and more like a tired old mongrel. The simplistic lo-fi rock elements seem to have been brought to the forefront of each track and without the weaving programmed melodies and techno loops the whole album feels lifeless and dull. The main issue seems to be distortion as every guitar or synth on the record relentlessly throbs in and out of hearing range making the lyrics and basic melody very difficult to pinpoint making the delicate hooks of previous albums seem like a distant memory. Much of the guitar work and other instrumentation seems to be focused on creating a similar euphoric shoegaze sound as one of the bands earlier singles "Girls" but unfortunately all it does is turn each track into an ambiguous blurry mess with no real emotion or subtle tone behind it. The only highlights of the whole thing is the slightly more dancey single "Your Loft My Acid" which still falls short of being a great addition to the bands previously impressive canon.Unfortunately highlights are far too few and far between for the record to be anything other than a disappointment.

Overall Trans-Love Energies is a somewhat shambolic return for Death In Vegas. If you're interested in the mix of down tempo dance and rock music I'd advise you steer clear of this album and either go investigate the bands earlier releases like Scorpio Rising or failing that give UNKLE a spin as they seem to have nailed the perfect formula. Hopefully Trans-Love will prove to be a minor setback in the bands illustrious career but only time will tell. Avoid this album.

Download: Don't Even Bother