This very strong 3-track effort includes Catnip, The Caged Ones and the title track. Catnip starts with a mind-numbing throb as the weary hyperdrive gets up to speed before someone pushes the button and UFOs descend upon a small Western town and the first carnival of the season. There's gonna be a gunfight at noon - if anyone survives the pod invasion. Add the wails of the damned on backing vocals , capped by what can only be a complete breakdown of the Interceptor's instrumention due to the effective ECM that they call a solo as the jet spins out of control behind the ridge. But the party goes on.

It's suddenly the next morning, and through the rippling heat, Spaghetti Western guitars pry us from hangovers and sheets damp with perspiration. The carnival has left town but the festival planners have left the stage up for tonight's rock show. This is the soundcheck, conducted with a mood of laissez-faire looseness and the edge of too many nights of vodka and amphetamines. Sally-Ann Marsh can't be bothered using her microphone, so a bull horn will have to do. This is what rock should aspire too, not the gentle strums of guitars your dad covets, but something cheap turned up way too loud.

The show begins at sundown.

Sputnik Bride tells a theatrical tale of manic depression, with quiet quiets, loud louds, thundering thumps, breathy beckonings and satanic screaming. It's as if Wendy James had balls and fronted Metallica.

Is this where Brand Violet's softer side ends? Is it Brand Violet's 'new direction'? Castoffs seen as 'too dark' or 'too heavy' for their first record, which is more crossover though perhaps less aggressive in spots? Do questions like this matter?

No, they don't. I like it when a band paints in a part of the canvass you didn't expect, and when you step back, you can't have imagined the picture any other way.

-- Juan dos Passos

Currently the objects of an appalling a n r dribble-fest. Presumably because the music-biz thinking runs along the lines of ‘oooh, rock band with a spunky blonde in rubber up front, BLONDIE! MONEY! BLONDIE!” etc etc. the good news for casual punters and the bad news for lazy a n r, is that Brand Violet are determinedly, even dementedly, no slave to the peroxide pudenda fronting the show. “Retrovision…” is, like the entire Brand Violet project and the music biz in general, an artful compromise between art and artifice. So, while the pop nous of the B52’s and Blondie loom large, a metalled-up take on the Rondelles is biting their ankles and the pop is very much kicked shitless by the rock on this set. If I had money to invest, I’d put it into Brand Violet, but only to spend the winnings on vodka n coke you understand.

‘Retrovision Coma USA’ is the quartet’s debut album and follows on from a few well-heeled singles that have recently included the infectious ‘Alien Hive Theme’ (included here). An album that oozes sexual tension, vocalist Sally Anne Marsh prowls throughout one minute purring sensually, the next menacingly vengeful sometimes wide open baring hurt all the time lurking in the shadows the suited and booted zigzagging engine of the band: ‘Cat’ Shatner, ‘Baby’ Igor and ‘Bones’ Jones (obviously secret agent nom de plumes kids). From the outset ‘Retrovision’ locks it ray gun target sights, its great feature is that is doesn’t over elaborate, instead it plays to its strengths by serving up an inviting dish of good wholesome straight forward infectious pop that from the opening b-movie film like credits of the brief 'Zona di Anima'which manages to conjure images of ‘Earth Vs the Flying Saucers’ or maybe ‘This Island Earth’, Brand Violet don’t hold back with their twisting pop shrill.

By far the albums stand out track is the recent single ‘Alien Hive Theme’ a hip shaking killer of a cut that possesses some of the best surrealist sci-fi pop heard here since the B-52’s ‘Rock Lobster’ and motored by a grinding hot rod dynamic dispersing cutting riffs and twanging menace as though its going out of fashion and capped perfectly by Marsh’s ‘black widow’ like charm while the eerie ‘Voodoo’ clubs you to death with the kind of melodic hook that takes up residency in your waking conscious and redecorates it to its own taste. The feisty rumble pop of ‘Blink’ marries together prime Blondie and classic Pixies to a devastating conclusion, the Blondie fixation deepening on ‘Argyle Gargoyle Grrl’ where things get very ‘Plastic Letters’ in terms of style while in sharp contrast ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ instils a distinct sense of lunatic comic horror appreciation pretty much as though the Munsters had been invited to a pogo party

If it’s something a little more sentimental you want then you couldn’t do better than cast an ear over the goofy 50’s bubblegum pop of ‘They call me a tramp’ which in all honesty takes ‘Beauty School Dropout’ from ‘Grease’ to adult rated extremes keeping you fixed till the end half expecting Frankie Avalon to turn up in the middle in full S and M gear with chains ‘n’ whips. Then there’s always the alluring fix of emotionally torn ‘Soul Patch’ which will lay you to waste. ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ is all at once cute, smart and deadly, dare you succumb?

MARK BARTON

So: What on earth are Brand Violet trying to *do* ... can't you just hear them all now, scratching their brains (shrunken by an endless, churning, unforgiving diet of Dido, cold cut of Coldplay, Tonic of 'Phonics ... need I continue?)... they are making music that (a gasp, a groan) sounds different. Challenging. Interesting. Powerful. Melodic. Not without humour. Balls. Breasts.

"I don't get it." (NB: has Dido, Coldplay, Sting, Katie Melua on her iPod). (NB: she will be dancing to it this summer in a club near you, guaranteed).

Retrovision grabs you without mercy from the start, pounding you senseless with the first three or four tracks (just in case you didn't get the message) before wandering down some very strange, aggressively cinematic lanes ("You be'er not look too close down those alleys," Pedro says with a sly, greasy wink. "You might see something you like...") before coming back at you at the end -- with that brick you thought they had put aside back at the start.

At some point, the flashback sets in (or does it?). Throbbing noises, silver saucers, sexual experimentation and strange humanoids with slanted black eyes. ("I can tell you're upset about this, Dave..."). All this, and more, in under 45 minutes. -
Juan dos Passos

POSTSCRIPT Oh how could we forget dessert? Just received a copy of their new SPUTNIK BRIDE, 3-track EP. But sit awhile! Save some space for afters.

Juan dos Passos

'Perhaps this is where the Transvision Vamp revival begins. A damning comment? Not a bit of it; for evidence look around you for the influence of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, rehabilitated and happy in the hands of King Adora. Oh… Not to worry, here’s the point: Transvision Vamp started the kiddie-pop rot, and it stops here. Sally-Anne Marsh’s creamy-girlie voice is a close cousin to Wendy James’, but imbued with the attitude of Debbie Harry, lending Brand Violet’s grab-bag of B-52’s, Cramps, Jan and Dean and B-Movie horror an edge of sex, danger and real pop class. Someday all pop will be made this way, the way it used to be.'

Gillian Nash

Brand Violet have been kicking around the London indie scene for several years now, leaving some of us wondering how it is possible for this band to have remained such a well-kept secret for so long.

It seems that the word is starting to spread, and the release of the Voodoo single ahead of the band's debut album Retrovision Coma USA confirm that this is a band to watch.

Having seen them live, it's hard to imagine how anyone could capture the slow-burning energy, power and pure sexual tension of vocalist Sally-Anne Marsh and the band's impossibly self-contained atom-bomb-in-a-biscuit-tin sound. Voodoo, like Alien Hive Theme before it, comes close.

Making comparisons is a poor and lazy journalist's way out of doing any work, but I'd file Brand Violet somewhere amongst Man Or Astro Man, Blondie, The Pixies and possibly the Cardigans at their naughtiest and most interesting. Suffice it to say Voodoo would fill the floors of clubs and BDSM clubs alike, with both audiences equally confused and equally enthralled.

LOGO Magazine seems intent on tipping Brand Violet for future success and a bright light in the vanilla-flavoured UK musical soundscape of 2004, and I'm pleased to join them.

Brand Violet / Voodoo's appeal, and brilliance, lies in the easy reference points that make the band accessible -- great for lazy journalists -- contrasted against a sound, when those reference points are melted together, that is simply unmistakable.

The ‘Sputnik Bride’ EP is quite literally hot off the press, not due out for a wee while and features three brand new cuts that reveal the darker side to Brand Violet’s psyche. Opening to the spacey carnival-esque ‘Catnip’ a brooding cut that sees them shying away from the usual poppified format in favour of a more edgy dynamic, still sounds like the Bride of Frankenstein crossing swords with ‘Money’ era Space with the eeriness of ‘Earth VS the Flying Saucers’ / ‘They Live’ b-movie backdrops bleeding into the mix, too damn cool for its own good. ‘The Caged Ones’ kicks off with a tasty little spaghetti western aperitif before going all Pixies caught red-handed hoodwinking a copy of B-52’s ‘Planet Claire’. Leaving the best till last, the brooding menace of the dislocated ‘Sputnik Bride’, needling riffs, dragging doom laden chords navigate a cautiously grinding groove that’s pitted in shadows and oppression and just when your at your least aware it rears its potently tipped tail sting to render you paralysed, charmed I’m sure.

UNPEELED - FEB 2004

Fronted by a would-be pop princess gone bad who, after hearing the Devil’s music on holiday, decided fronting a rock band was her calling and ditched her recording contract on her return, formed on Halloween night… Brand Violet look like the premise to a poor horror movie, while with titles like ‘Voodoo’ and ‘Alien Hive Theme’ their music sounds like its equally kitschy soundtrack. Sugar sweet riot grrl-ish punk in the vein of Jack Off Jill on a first taste, there’s a spooky corrosive edge to its cutesy flavour that you can be sure is rotting your teeth like so many Parma Violets. Laced with lyrics about poisoning, hints of Portishead atmospherics and glorious 50s rockabilly-like bass on ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ the aftertaste is lingering and addictive. Go get a fix!

www.alive.co.uk
Review of "Alien Hive Theme"

'Insane surf guitars and helium pop vocals with a strange, dark edge. Welcome to the world of Brand Violet, an oddly sexy combo filled with a wonderously off-kilter array of influences. They look fantastic and play like it's their last night on earth. On the influences list, you can hear the B-
52's, Blondie and today's New York rock wonders. Gloriously unhinged and fresh.'

A lazy journalist would describe them as a seductive B52’s, but there is more depth and a darker edge than the US stars. Seductive, vampish and slinky vocals from lead violet Sally-Anne Marsh, but powerful and soaring enough to stand alone above the catchy but dirty guitar riffs.

I suspect the dancefloor catchiness hides a sinister side to Brand Violet that will be revealed in the fullness of time. A beautifully odd creation that spawns delightful music and that’s where the B52 comparison comes in.

Out now, click on the cover to go to Brand Violets site to listen foryourself.A stunning debut from a London based band who seem certain to climb the ladder of musical fame, also a stunning live band according to Manilla columnist Daryl Frost.

A sort of seductive B52's'

Tony McDonagh