Review: Bullet For Dali – Diffical Techniculties

Since I received this debut EP by LA’s Bullet For Dali I have discovered that the group have disbanded. A shame because there’s quite a lot of promise here if you like your synth-driven indie with added art-rock twists.

It is the crazed vocals that dominate much of the material; think of a particularly unhinged version of Bowie from his 1980’s phase and you’d be close to the truth. Thie first two tracks fly the flag for danceable post-punk but ‘System Error’ – as the title possibly warns – veers a little too close to 80s synth-rock pastiche to be taken seriously.  On the plus side, ‘Rise Or Burn’ benefits from a menacing rhythm section, some eerie keyboards and a despairing, demented vocal performance. I was also impressed by the way in which the group moved to the subtler dynamics of ‘Shutter Eyes’; thereby demonstrating they had quite a few strings to their bow. The final hidden track, meanwhile, is in-your-face punk. There’s definitely a lot of different personalities displayed on this record – which could feasibly have been a factor in the break-up of Bullet For Dali – but the six songs here gel nicely all the same.

Web Sites:
Bullet For Dali MySpace

Further Listening:
David Bowie, Visage, Medium21