PHENOMENAL HANDCLAP BAND – FORM & CONTROL

What’s in a name? Very little these days it must be said, as everybody stands out from the crowd, forming a fairly big crowd themselves. The amusingly titled Phenomenal Handclap Band release their second album and immediately it is 1984 again. Not in an Orwellian sense, in an OMD, Depeche Mode Human League sense. Deliberately dated synths abound, along with heavily treated vocals, the ice cool but trying to be sexy kind. What does hang things together for the Handclappers is the use of real drums, bass and guitar over this mix, adding an organic element that propels the songs along out of the occasional disco mire. Throw in a little art rock, such as opens Winter Falls, and there is enough, just, to keep this album from disappearing up its own influences (there is a fine line between tongue in cheek and tongue elsewhere). The Unknown Father James Park stands out on the back of a strong melody and chorus, and the most personal of performances from the dual female vocal leads. New, neu, nu-romantics?

** 1/2