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Album Reviews
Album Review: South Central – Owl Of Minerva (Egregore)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 10 November 2008
Ever since Soulwax hemmed open the fissure of club dance meets performance rock, there’s been an eruption of musical underlings constructing floorfillers with guitar straps on their backs. This latest attempt to remove dance music from its comfort zone has already achieved a stamp of approval from Pete Tong, Justice and Erol Alkan, and the guys behind it have just completed a tour with Does It Offend You, Yeah? But will South Central prove to have the vision required to carry this off without falling into the pitfalls of this tricky genre? In short, possibly. ‘Owl Of Minerva’ is a tantalising glance through the band’s short back catalogue of singles as they prepare their debut album proper, which is due for release in 2009. Aiming for a rapturous marriage of melody pierced by self-destructive glitch, they deliver in many cases. The seven minute epic ‘Castle Of Heroes’ sounds like MS-DOS hanging on for dear life as guitars soar over the mess euphorically. Elsewhere, there is more sonic annihilation, but we can rely on instrumentation to bring it back from the precipice. However, sometimes this can mean predictability, as in dreary opener ‘Aeon’. If South Central learn anything from their current tour, it’s that they should continue their music on its trajectory. That way, expect Soulwax to get edgy at the top in 2009. GB
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