C’est la Mort – Empty Words Fill Lonely Spaces (Dismal Nitch)
They’re a four-piece from Seattle; so don’t get fooled by the name. On their MySpace page C’est la Mort have attracted some interesting musical friends, and amongst these are The Sound, The Comsat Angels, The March Violets, Wire, The Sun And The Moon and The Chameleons. Not amongst their friends (as far as I could tell) but definitely amongst their influences we can add The Church, Slowdive, Blonde Redhead, Chapterhouse, Cocteau Twins and Ride. We’ve hit shoegazing paydirt here, with some very nice twists in the mix to give the whole thing an occasional rockier edge. The fey vocals of Kim House have a mesmerizing quality that befits the overall sound, and, again, as far as I could tell, the words are all hers too (the digipak tells us very little). In style, she is akin to Lush’s Miki Berenyi, and if you can imagine a group fronted by her, with the other three members coming from any of the bands above, you might just have it. Well, at least you’ll be close.

The penultimate track, “Final Call”, has the only male lead vocal on the whole album, and if you can imagine Bernard Sumner and Adrian Borland rolled into one, then that nails that voice; and it ain’t half bad, either.

We are treated to ten tracks, ranging from shoegaze adoration to, well, shoegaze rock. If you suspect you wouldn’t like this music you’re probably right, but there are enough of us out there to do the liking for you. I, for one, am grateful for these ‘dead’ souls.
www.myspace.com/cestlamort

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