PPM
2009
Silk Flowers
About This Album
On the surface, artificial flora and bizarro electronic pop that sounds like it was recorded in a cave or a mad scientist's lab don't seem to have much in common, but Silk Flowers is an apt name for this New York-based trio -- their sound is unrepentantly synthetic, pretty at times, and also a bit morbid. The band's self-titled debut doesn't sound much like the other projects of anyone involved with it. Singer/multi-instrumentalist Aviram Cohen and keyboardist Peter Schuette come from jazzy indie rockers Soiled Mattress & the Springs, and while Ethan Swan's Car Clutch is similarly strange and electronic, Silk Flowers is more focused and more mischievous. At different points on the album, the band's dark-yet-naïve sound nods to Kraftwerk, Suicide, John Carpenter's film scores, and library music, but that pedigree doesn't let on how much fun this music is. Some of the synths Silk Flowers use, as on the dreamy but sinister "Birds of Passion," are so cheap and brittle that they verge on camp; the woozy "Running out of Rope" could be an early-'70s electronic novelty pop song played at half-speed. Even the album's harder-edged tracks, like "Night Shades," which begins as flashy nightclub new wave and gets devoured by sheets of industrial noise, never feel too harsh thanks to Fred Thomas' production, which gives Silk Flowers a charmingly decrepit feel.
Track List (try tracks 1,8 and 10)

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