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Cheatahs - Mythologies

Hard to believe that this is only Cheatahs' second album proper, so prevalent do they seem to be in the music press and online. A full length release each of the last two years, 2015s Murasaki San & Sunne EPs and the relentless pressure of the EPs that made up the Extended Plays compilation have all done the job of keeping the band very much in focus.

With Mythologies the band have it would seem perfected the move to a more Slowdive-like brand of shoegaze. Right from the off on opening track 'Red Lakes (Sternstunden)' the sound is blissed out and background vocal parts drift in and out as if at will. Clear proof that they're growing and developing all the time.

Moments of pounding energy still exist in their sound though, as on 'Channel View' where Marc Raue gets to hammer away on the drumkit with wild abandon. Elsewhere the motorik pace you've no doubt come to expect is in no way lacking despite the overall trippier feel to the baker's dozen of songs. Cover art-wise too there's a greater maturity with those slightly eerie eight robed figures either dancing or fleeing something or who knows what? An image you could ponder over for an age.

They still find time to fit in something reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub turning all the levels up and going for a mosh with 'Freak Waves' before 'Signs To Lorelei' calms things back down. That ability to vary the songs but retain their own uniting conception is another sure sign of the band's coming into their own.

Mythologies is a fine work from a group rightly deserving their just rewards for years of effort. It's criminal I've so far failed to see them live so that needs to be remedied at the earliest opportunity (although not it seems in 2015 as their five date UK tour, November 17 - 21, takes place whilst I'm covering Le Guess Who?).

Mythologies is available from amazon & iTunes.

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