‘Love Corrupted,’ the debut album from Canadian duo Dime Lifters, is a hazy, smoky collection of songs and abstractions that are redolent of early Dirty Beaches and Mullholland Drive-era David Lynch. The record begins with some ambient noise, equal parts beautiful and terrifying, that sets the tone for one of the more interesting releases of the year. As the first guitar strums and drum machines of ‘Aegean Face’ come into view, with a washed out vocal right at the back of the mix, this is an interesting presentation of fairly traditional songwriting through a lo-fi, ambient filter.
Third track, ‘Palm Of My Hand,’ is the first one to clearly feature Kyle Knapp from underground heroes Deliluh on lead vocals, and has an edge to it that recalls some of their best work from recent album ‘Fault Lines.’ The duo of Dime Lifters is completed by his friend Andrew Matthews who shares in the music making and provides vocals across much of the album. The pair explain that they are living out their dreams of becoming “self aggrandising pop balladeers in the traditional sense,” and there is definitely a case to be made for this, although they’re certainly channeling the seedier side of the tradition!
On ‘Disfigured Light’ Dime Lifters step into the dreamier side of their production, and although simple it’s oddly beautiful. The song was written hastily in France ahead of the duo’s first ever gig as Matthews explains: “We booked our first show in Marseille, last minute with little to no material ready to perform. We had just finished shooting a short film and had definitely burned the candle at both ends. I didn’t think we should do the show, but Kyle’s maniacal ambition convinced me that we could pull it off. In a frenzied 24 hours of necessity before the concert, we wrote a batch of songs in a local venue/rehearsal space called L’Embobineuse.”
There is a rough and ready feel to this album, and you do get the impression that it’s not a record that was sweated over every minute detail, but the rawness and ease it has within itself make it compelling in a way most albums aren’t able to be. Overall ‘Love Corrupted’ has an otherworldly filmic quality to it that will appeal to fans of noir and the bleaker, weirder side of life. The faintly industrial backdrop to the music fits this odd space that is both warm and cold, emotional and detached.
7/10
Words: Nicolas Graves
