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VHS or Beta 'Night on Fire'

added 11 May 2005 at 10.06

Simultaneously compelling and unnecessary, Kentucky's VHS Or Beta take the best parts (and some of the worst) from the Eighties revival and turn out a solid set of punk funk grooves. Luckily, 'Night On Fire' provides just enough warmth to make it through the Cure-revering eye-liner fuelled night.

The good news is that 'Night On Fire' is a distinct improvement on their 2002 instrumental debut 'Le Funk' as VHS Or Beta have opted to include the vocals of guitarist Craig Pfunder on this, the follow-up. The bad news is that the reluctant frontman sounds like every other guitar-toting disco outfit vocalist currently on the market (cf The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem ad infinitum). Not necessarily a bad thing, although this does require the Louisville four-piece to bring something else to the table.

And it's this something else where things fall down. Much has been made of the Daft Punk comparisons, but too often the 'Aerodynamic'-esque guitars stray to dangerously Steve Vai-aping levels of noodling. In fact, while the band may have originated as a purely vocals-less outfit, it's the instrumental workouts that tire quickest. The five minutes forty-one seconds of 'Nightwaves' should be a euphoric house monster of 'House Of Jealous Lovers' proportions, but too quickly it's extended highs and lows become background noise.

So while NY punk-funk may be so two years ago, admittedly it's here that VHS Or Beta excel. the title track is a perfectly pitched four-to-the-floor stomper, while Pfunder's yearning call of "And when you think everything's lost, you got me" on 'You Got Me' adds a human touch the new Daft Punk record 'Human After All' ironically lacked. Elsewhere, current single 'The Melting Moon' rocks just a little harder than it dances like a lost romantic Robert Smith B-side and 'No Cabaret!' also presses the right sonic buttons.

All in all 'Night On Fire' leaves the listener in a quandary: for it's duration the record is a perfectly produced article of 2003's Eighties revival and, while somewhat limper than their reportedly beefier live onslaught, pillages the decade respectfully, yet proves ultimately harmless. Creatively sterile and somewhat unnecessary, VHS Or Beta have made an above-average soulful house record riding a sonic wave almost two-years old. Fortunately for the band, like The Cure and eyeliner, some things never seem to go completely out of fashion.
 

 VHS Or Beta 'Night On Fire' (Astralwerks) Released May 9 2005.

Tagged as Vhs Or Beta, archive

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