2025 repress
BACK IN STOCK, the much appreciated reissues of the first two CS + Kreme EPs, which on their original release close to ten years ago, genuinely sounded like alien innovations in the grand continuum of midnight-dwelling. trip-hop derived alternative pop. 'Pop' is an elastic term in this context, especially so when tied to such lengthy songs with unconventional structures, but there is nonetheless a sense of hybridised songcraft on display that declares a love for the tradition, drawing on street soul slow jams, downtempo electronica, synthpop mysticism and after hours club culture. The production is phenomenal, almost classic sounding in its elegance, framing the songs in a smoky blue light that adds a seductive psycho-sexual quality to the overall experience ala Moon Phase era Coil or easily imaginable as part of Crammed Disc's Made to Measure series. It's a similar trick as to that pulled by fellow Oz associates HTRK and Carla dal Forno, though I'd argue that CS + Kreme's overall palette is a touch broader, something given further credence with the increasingly open-ended and psychedelic records they've made since. Here, though, they felt focused and fully-formed right out the gate, two sets of four tracks presented separately but very clearly of the same mind (as also intimated by the respective artwork), melodic, romantic, low-key inventive and deep under the cover of the night. When the clock strikes 12, few records from the era sound much better.
FFO: HTRK, Carla Dal Forno, Dregs, Pablo's Eye, Benjamin Lew
