[SIC] MAGAZINE
cd reviews - May 6, 2010
Brett Spaceman
Dark Matter
[sic]magazine.com

7.5/10

“Boom Boom, Bang Bang
and gun it”

Good to see the evergreen Lost Patrol playing some recent dates in California. I always said the New Yorkers had more of a West Coast sound. Tough to imagine a more suitable soundtrack than theirs, to Hollywood, surf, and cowboy sunsets. The Lost Patrol are Dick Dale in a Leoné movie. Dark Matter is the bands squillionth, ( or maybe seventh?) album. We lose track.

We shouldn’t. We should take time out to cherish something here. Nobody else quite sounds like The Lost Patrol. They are unique. How many acts can you honestly say that about? The Lost Patrol are special. Not because they are pushing the boundaries of recorded music to any great degree but because they create their own universe. In much the same way a movie director like Tarantino creates his own world. Think Kill Bill (Samurai swords as hand-luggage anyone?) It looks a bit like our world but it isn’t. Thus TLP inhabit a different place. You can tell one of The Lost Patrol's tracks from the first bar.

“Zoom Zoom, Hot Dang
You’ve done it”

Last time around we saw The Lost Patrol re-establishing themselves after the loss of their cherished chanteuse, Danielle. They achieved this by unearthing a second siren, torch singer (some guitarists get all the luck) in Mollie Israel and playing it somewhat safe with the backing songs. MIDNIGHT MATINÉE, the previous album was, if anything, oversweet and a touch harmless. Dark Matter is altogether, well, darker for starters. This time around TLP have a knife behind their back.

So the mood is slightly icier. A touch more gothic. ‘In Your Blood’ and ‘Leading The Blind’ are in Siouxsie and the Banshees territory. Other moments recall the pre-Raphaelite Cocteau Twins. The rest is pure, sixties rock ‘n’ roll, albeit with the help of gorgeous eighties guitar licks. Not a bad marriage that! Sixties cool and eighties effects. Forever stylish, forever cinematic, forever themselves, Dark Matter may well be The Lost Patrol’s best yet.

“Boom Boom, Bang Bang
You look good to me”

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