CLONE DEFECTS
Shapes Of Venus (In the Red)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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Kicking off with an intro taken from some scratchy old record about life on other planets, this CD is damn kickin' stuff. I liked their first CD, but this one's really good. These guys have a punky, new wavey kinda sound, and sound pretty damn authentic to the original sound. You could easily pass this off as something that came out anywhere between 1976-80. Engineer Jim Diamond did a really excellent job on this one. Lead singer/guitarist Timmy Vulger has a really strong, and interesting voice. He sounds somewhat like certain other class of '77 punks and wavers, but I can't place who he really reminds me of. I could toss off comparisons to Lou Reed, Iggy, Dave Vanian, David Thomas, and Jim Carroll, and they'd all apply. On the first song, "Low Fashion Lovers," they used an interesting technique of having two separate lead vocals in each channel, and it sounds really cool. "Still Poor" features cool girlie backing vocals. On "Fill My Fridge," Diamond plays some mean electric piano. "Procrastinator Blues" has a great proto-punk sound, like a great lost Rocket From The Tombs song or something. They do two interesting covers: "I Rock I Ran" by the Toxin 3 (see "Killed By Death Vol. 8.5") and Otis Redding's "That's How Strong My Love Is."

© 2003 - Alan Wright