Puro Instinct - Headbangers In Ecstasy

The experience of listening to ‘Headbangers In Ecstasy’ is a frustrating one, mainly because it contains very little of the two things promised in the title. This album is more a hazy drunken stupor than ecstasy, and the only head-bang comes from inadvertently nodding off and thumping your head on the desk.

This is a shame, because the Kaplan sisters do show glimmers of promise. The songwriting in ‘Lost At Sea’ is ridden with choral harmonies that work together quite beautifully, and the addition of brass adds the richness and immersive depth that other tracks are missing. ‘Slivers Of You’ also shows signs of life – with propulsive drums and a committal melody it moves along with purpose, a song that knows where it is going.

Unfortunately the quality of these tracks only accentuates the shortcomings. The disco inspired ‘No Mames’ has potential to be intentionally gaudy and ironic; everything the over-done album artwork seems to hint at. Instead it drifts along with no sense of direction, dragging Piper’s deadpan vocals behind. Laced with reverb and misplaced amp fuzz, it would sound wonderfully post-punk, but without extra support Piper just sounds like a Joy Division tribute act gone wrong.

A little like attending a nightclub with a keen, but completely dreadful DJ, who ‘MC’s’ enthusiastically the minute a track gets going, ‘Headbangers of Ecstasy’ never seems to hits its stride. The ‘KDOD’ radio interludes are perhaps attempts to present the album as a wholly conceived musical concept, in reality they serve to jolt the listener awake every few tracks. Puro Instinct fall short when compared to the more mature sounds of Beach House and Real Estate - they seem lacklustre, even mediocre. ‘Headbangers In Ecstasy’ is just too fragile – if only it had stronger, deeper foundations, and a more coherent final vision. This could be special, but in it’s current state, it sadly isn’t.