Angel Eyes: “Starter Engine Down”

Following Dire Dish, the 2010 debut cassette on the Not Not Fun label, Melbourne, Australia’s Andrew Cowie (aka Angel Eyes) returns on another one of the US underground’s finest imprints, Moon Glyph. There isn’t exactly a shortage of artists currently producing psychedelically submerged MOR, so anyone mining this particular territory has to have their tunes and vibes spot on. Cowie thankfully does. One of the closest points of comparison is NNF artist Joe Knight’s Rangers project, as Angel Eyes pursues a similar tack of amping up ’80s suburban ennui to heroically epic proportions, while simultaneously warping the sounds of that era to the point of near unrecognizability. There’s perhaps a little more Ian Curtis in Cowie’s occasional vocals than in some of his like-minded ilk and the heart-tugging hints of raincoat miserabilism in the soft-focus synth haze make his music linger in memory after the blissful waves of tape-saturation have ceased.

The Vice to Vice cassette by Angel Eyes is available now from Moon Glyph

Written by Christopher Greenberg