Matador records has done well for itself in the last few months, signing bands that are just about ready to burst and springing them onto the music loving public. Two of their biggest acquisitions this year, Girls and Kurt Vile, are both classic rock sounding guitar bands, which makes their new signee Cold Cave stand out even more. Much like the two bands previously mentioned, Cold Cave come to the venerable indie label with a great sound, though that is about the only thing Cold Cave has in common with them.

With Love Comes Close, Cold Cave mixes in elements of noisy rock and dance music on an extremely strong album. The dancier portions of the album never venture into, say, Cut Copy territory, but still pack loads of melodies into an array of scuzzy arrangements. The album’s title track highlights a pulsing back beat before lead singer Wes Eisold does his best Ian Curtis, singing his mopey lyrics over the mid-tempo track. “Life Magazine” is explosive center to the album, with the synths nearly ripping through the speakers in a song I can only imagine sounds monumental live. The slinky, post-apocalyptic sounds of “The Laurels of Erotomania,” “I.C.D.K” and “Youth and Lust” mix dreary soundscapes with buzzing beats that make you want to dance away the ghosts hidden in the dark layers of noise in each song.

The other songs on the album mostly fall somewhere within the noisy, avant pop category. Some sound like the work of standard bearers Suicide, while others like contemporaries Crystal Castles. The vocals, as they are throughout the entire record, are often so distorted that they almost sound like samples from old, scratched up records of voodoo chants. The album opens with “Cebe and Me,” which features dense bass lines mixing with brittle high hat clicks and gradually adds layers onto itself until the noise reaches its tipping point. “Heaven Sas Full” and “The Tree Grew Emotions and Died” help make up dancier portion of the LP, but their dizzying sonic flourishes made me feel more like I was taking off on an acid trip than hitting the dance floor. The songs can be nearly overwhelming with their layers and layers of noise, but none venture so far that they takes away from the strong music hidden beneath the noise.

The songs of Cold Cave will definitely appeal to a certain demographic of music listeners while potentially sounding cold and contrived to others. Their music is highly emotional, but in a steely, packaged, and detached sort of way. It is most definitely a post-Kid A album, one that doesn’t want to use electronic instruments simply as a means to an end, but rather to convey the cold and vulnerable world that we live in. The songs on Love Comes Close, even when they are upbeat and packed full of bouncing melodies, are dark and have rich undertones that allow the listener to find a new angle each time they play the album.

Cold Cave “The Laurels of Erotomania” (mp3)
Cold Cave “Life Magazine” (mp3)

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