Not Lost In Translation
‘Decent Man on a Desperate Moon’ is the latest release from Norwegian group Transit. It opens like a poor mans Nick Cave, but does more than enough over the course of this gloomy alt-rock ten track collection to convince the listener that whilst treading over old ground this group have something distinctive and interesting to add to an otherwise stagnant genre.
With vocals sung in crisp clear English (not a hint of their native tongue) Jan Kenneth Transeth manages to mimic perfectly just about the weirdest collection of UK/US alt rockers you could care to mention. He’s Frank Black on the tempestuous ‘Damned If You Don’t’, Cult frontman Ian Astbury on album standout ‘Bleed on Me’ and Alec Empire on the grandstand finale ‘Ad Anima pt. 3’. Sounding a little ominous? Perhaps, but vocals disappear on penultimate number ‘Ad Anima pt. 2’ and it’s on this menacing, brooding little number that you become acutely aware of the fact that comedic potential aside the constant voice changes were actually pretty good. So with that I flicked right back to the start and gave the whole thing a complete re-listen. And guess what? The inexplicable nature of the continual vocal transition soon becomes less of an issue as each track is heard the way it was intended to be heard.
Instrumentally it’s spirited stuff with almost every track offering something tasty to get your teeth into. Sometimes the band drift seemingly effortlessly from Americana to the sort of layered, gothic musical texture of John Crosby’s VAST. As I’ve stated earlier Transit play up to their influences pretty heavily, but this in no way detracts from the fantastic musicianship. It’s glossily produced too, very much along the lines of more contemporary bands and less of the old 80’s rock values which have been making a surprising and largely unwelcome comeback in recent years.
Transeth and his band are an interesting bunch. This is clever enough to sit on the CD rack of a rock purist and an indie kid more fond of a harder edge. Each song is different, stylish and adds a new impetuous to a flagging genre. I’ll listen to this again and I’ll certainly enjoy it; even if it did take me a while to figure out that I liked it.