Apr 28 2008 9:37 am,
dEUS
‘Vantage Point’
(V2)
Over the course of their first three albums, dEUS provided a haven for the disaffected. Listen to ‘Suds And Soda’s creaking, unsettling violin, or ‘Theme From Turnpike’s hypnotic, film noir rumbling – it was less a breath of fresh air, more a hurricane of sonic textures and skewed majesty.
‘Vantage Point’, their second album of the noughties, sees the band survey a different landscape. Punk-funk rhythms and jarring synths seem co-opted rather than subverted and singer Tom Barman snarls increasingly less menacingly. Guy Garvey and The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson lend a hand, but there’s the nagging feeling that, having broken so much ground already, this next step isn’t quite taken as boldly.
