THE BIG TAKEOVER
cd reviews - December 2009
Jack Rabid
Midnight Matinée
The Big Takeover (Issue No.65)

Not all bands influenced by The Chameleons (U.K.) are good, but many are. Case in point: this decade-old, prolific, greater New York trio, which spin off some of that Manchester group’s darker, gothier tones from Strange Times, adding darkwave guitar and goth-synth ambiance on Midnight. Even more, one can’t help but think of Hyaena Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Top Cure (both featuring Robert Smith) with a little of the earliest Cocteau Twins and X-Mal Deutschland (even Ocean Rain Bunnymen on “Blue Lullabies”), especially with new singer MOLLIE ISRAEL'S silky pipes. And it’s impressive that mastermind guitarist STEPHEN MASUCCI can’t resist liberal doses of terrific Dick Dale twang and shudder too. Does it matter that England has been transported wholesale to our shores? Not with a sound this cavernous; Midnight is an ambitious joy.

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