Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The magician will allow you a sneak peek at the illusion they have prepared for you to be entranced by, the artist will refuse you even a cursory glance of their work in progress until they are quite sure that light and truth is perfect alignment, and the guests at The Wake will throw a party whilst the casket is fully open; in this overflowing titbit are we offered the full experience of the Perfumes and Fripperies to which life is seen as both a joy and a reconciliation.
For the first time in 25 years, Ohio based goth rock/post punk supremos, The Wake, have released a set of new songs to which the lonely listener, deprived of such stimulating and curiously derived tracks, is able to once more dip into the darkness on offer and understand that the shadows are but the curtain which hides away a brilliant and lustful attention-grabbing incenses, designed to pull the person in and elaborate upon all the tricks they have seen, and a few more that defy belief.
The tension of the album is unmistakably cool, it is angry and loud, fearsome and raw, and yet it is also passionate, unrelenting, addictive, and as songs such as Daisy, Marry Me, the album title track Perfumes and Fripperies, Figurine and Big Empty draw the listener ever inward, so to does the smell of instant karma make itself known, its convincing appearance as the seeker of truth in a time of games, demons and governmental psychological warfare on the ordinary citizen.
In these dreams, reveries and conclusions, Troy Payne, Rich Witherspoon, James Tramel and Daniel C offer no physical sleep, for the listener will not have time for such noted fancies, not when there is the luxury of sound waiting for them, at the crossroads of dark and light.
Patience is a virtue, so they say, and indeed by waiting 25 years since their last recording, fans of The Wake have shown just how persevering and unflappable they can be, and in Perfumes and Fripperis, the wait has not only been worth it, it is a particular highlight that glows as brightly as the moon on a clear and beautiful night.
The Wake’s Perfumes and Fripperies is out now and available from Blaylox Records.
Ian D. Hall