Heat From A Dead Star - 'The Lighthouse EP'


Heat From A Dead Star

‘The Lighthouse EP’

A name which is surely ironic, given a dead star’s heat is still something like fifty-seven trillion billion degrees Celsius (about the same as a Greggs Cheese and Ham slice), Heat From A Dead Star scare the living cack out of me. They seem very annoyed, and not at all bothered that you’re a bit wary of them. They’re the musical equivalent of trying really hard not to look at that bloke in the pub with the tattoo of the spider on his face.

‘Elusive Ways’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ pulse like a black aneurysm, the former putting me in mind of the scary music they play on a Panorama special when a new strain of ‘flu virus is discovered on the Laos/Cambodia border. Their spare, sparse instrumentation is an outstanding mood setter, and a surefire way of avoiding excessive moshing at their gigs.

Track two, ‘Joan’ is about as close to Teenage Fanclub as HFADS will get, being positively buoyant compared to the rest of the disc, and while it’s welcome after the opener, it’s a bit of a forced smile. Malice is what this lot do best. The collection is rounded off by a remix of ‘Black Swans’, which feels like the exit music to a film in a deserted picture house at one in the morning through a blanket of fog thicker than a Playboy bunny. It should contain a warning: ‘This CD makes you evil.’

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