Ignore the cover, hear the original tracks.
With a history that contains Spiritualized and Lupine Howl, Sean Cook has served his time serving up some dark and mysterious music and its fair to say that The Flies are no different. Straight from the off in opener 'All Too Human', the menace is highly evident and nags at the listener from every turn.
With modern peers like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, its evident that The Velvet Underground have an influence on this act, from the dark shades to the rhythmic and hypnotic charm, the vocals having a drone like quality that washes over the listener and
When you're thinking of dark and satanic overtones in rock, one of the original masters are clearly The Rolling Stones and its not a massive surprise to see a cover of one of the bands biggest hits on this release.
Truth be told, it's a rather pointless cover of The Rolling Stones 'Ruby Tuesday.' It's a song that has already been covered to within an inch of its life so any other version is not only going to have the original to contend with but hundreds of other versions. It's a slow and measured rendition but it just seems slightly pointless to be honest, especially in comparison to some of the original material which bristles with energy and passion.
Even with 'One Less Heart Beats' which has a funeral procession pace conjures up more passion and menace than the cover and indicates the strength here lies in the original material, even though the cover may gain more column inches.
The vocals all have a dark and breathy quality, like a great horror film when the next victim is being chased whilst the musical tempo quickens like their heartbeat, this is the are that The Flies are dealing in and its no surprise to hear that the band have been working in this field. Even Cooks previous act Lupine Howl had its moments of cinematic quality, none more so than 'Vaporiser' but this mini-album ups the ante, particulary with the inclusion of Bob Locke and Tim Norfolk, film score veterans.
All in all, a good stop-gap release from The Flies and hopefully more to follow from them.