Revive

Twin brothers Torsten and Niels from Bray start by mucking around with a few sounds. A few years later they are getting their toes wet with all sorts of sonic adventures and a host of illustrious local voices. Colin Devlin lends his talents to the moody synth pop nugget ‘Headstrong’, and even better is the haunting ‘Lost Symphony’ which introduces a lush variety of tones and colours. Just how they make Brendan Murphy’s voice on ‘Fool’s Paradise’ sound like Karl Hyde’s little brother is anybody’s guess, but it works out very nicely thank you very much.

Other guesties include Dodge on the great ‘Bully Boy’, while Ollie Cole from Turn pops by to holler his way through the quasi-industrial ‘Sick of it All’. So far, think classic ’80s Depeche Mode, The Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Faithless and Death in Vegas - good goth/dance/pomp rock/freaked out fusion stuff - all shouty and melodramatic but still sweet and smooth. Top marks to ‘The Battle of Eden’ - excellently looping George Bush’s ominous “dead or alive” speech last year. ‘Serial Killer’ contains the same trick but isn’t executed with the same scary flourish and is a little over obvious.

The cover artwork by Irish painter Rasher complements the script beautifully. While some of the fare here is a little too clean and streamlined for my tastes, Revive is nevertheless a genuine revelation.