The history of
Menace Beach has been one of a stealthy takeover by Liza Violet. Where 2015’s '
Ratworld' was all about Ryan Needham’s blasts of bone-rattling scuzzy guitars, 2017’s '
Lemon Memory' put Violet more towards the centre, opening up their sound a little bit into the outlandish and slightly gothic.
On their third record, '
Black Rainbow Sound', those dirgey guitars and bizarre synths fully collide into something that’s somewhere between Superchunk and The Sisters of Mercy, with a dash of Gary Numan thrown in for good measure. It’s a dizzying combination for sure, but it’s no less exhilarating if you’re in the right frame of mind, eschewing the poppier feel of 'Lemon Memory' for something a bit more experimental.
This intersection of 80s synth pop and 90s alt college rock is most obvious in '
Mutator', with its pulsating bassline, 'Cars'-esque synth and jangling riffs. '8000 Molecules', meanwhile, takes a trip into the celestial; twinkling synths the stars in the infinite blackness as we float towards Violet’s distorted vocals singing an anti-love song, 'I’m not in / I’m not in love'.
These tracks are nice enough, but it’s when things take a much weirder turn that 'Black Rainbow Sound' really comes into its own. The title track begins to feel like a bridge between 'Lemon Memory' and this album, easing us in with something that seems familiar but with an unusual twist, before fully throwing us into the madness that follows.
