(self-released)
I woke up the other morning thinking about a song by Shakespeare’s Sister, a mid-’80s band with a flair for the dramatic and more than a little gothic panache. It seems that was a premonition, as I found myself drawn to the neo-goth punk of The Mess the next day, a local act who combine Joy Division at their darkest with Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy. The production is so remarkably spot on to the sound, that if someone told me this was a lost recording from 1986, it would be absolutely believable. Fronted by Albie Mason, who supplies all instrumentation and lyrics, The Mess manages a dance-friendly sensibility, like the sassy Dracula that he is, all for a rather lovely, if inherently melancholic, affair.
