PROPER ORNAMENTS, THE - Mission Bells (Sealed) (LP)

Nine months after the release of their album "Six Lenins" THE PROPER ORNAMENTS are back in the news again. What stands out on "Mission Bells" is meticulous care, an eye for detail that is never an end in itself but always keeps the song and the sound in mind. It's quite conceivable that whoever listens to "Mission Bells" is reminded of recordings of the Velvet Underground, the Swell Maps, Spiritualized or Cluster. But in truth, it's not so easy to find different influences on this fifth album by Proper Ornaments. After all, the band has found more and more of itself over the years and has long since stopped needing outside inspiration. The PROPER ORNAMENTS are of course no retro-band, despite their faible for guitars. It's just that this instrument has always accompanied at least James Hoare and Max Oscarnold since they were nine years old. "Mission Bells" has become an outstanding album, a musical maelstrom whose harmonies irresistibly transport the inclined listeners into a somnambulistic state, caught between dream and reality. The beauty is that you don't want to escape it, even if postmodern life wants to lure us outside ...